Justice Ademola says 15-count charge against him is a joke

dimeji akinloye

November 15, 2016 8:12 PM

Justice Ademola said the charges against him are just to play to the gallery and to justify the "unconstitutional" arrest of judges.

Justice Adeniyi Ademola

Justice

The Federal Government on Monday, November 14, filed a 15-count charge before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, against Justice Ademola and his wife, Olabowale, who is the Head of Service of Lagos State, for allegedly receiving gratification.

Reacting to the allegation, a lawyer in his defence team, Mr Jeph Njikonye, said the prosecutors went so "low" to impute that Justice Ademola received gratification from his uncle’s law firm, G.T.J Ademola & Co.

Njikonye said the Federal Government only filed the charges to play to the gallery and to justify the "unconstitutional" raid on houses of some judges by the DSS.

He said: "We have taken a preliminary look at the charges and we can confidently say that they are bogus and trumped up to play to the gallery of the public. It is also an attempt to justify their unconstitutional raid on the houses of the judges in the wee hours of the day.

"Unfortunately, the populace will not have the opportunity to be in court to see how unsubstantiated and how woolly those charges are. There is no iota of substance in the charges.

"All of these are politically-motivated.

"They are trumped-up to denigrate and tarnish the name of the judge and the name of the Ademola family.

"They also went so low to impute that the judge received gratification from his uncle, who runs the G.T.J Ademola & Co.

"We will be eager to get to the bridge and cross it."

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The lawyer said the government also "roped" in the judge's wife, whom she described as a woman of integrity.

"In playing to the sentiment of the public, they disingeniously roped in the wife of the judge.

"As Head of Service of Lagos State, the wife of the judge does not reside in Abuja.

"She is a woman of sterling character and who does not know anything about the cases her husband presides over."

The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation filed the 15 counts in the suit with number, FCT/CR/21/2016, against the Justice Ademola and his wife.

The prosecution accused Ademola and his wife of 'corruptly' receiving a total sum of N248,101,300 and $520,000 as gratification from law firms and others between 2013 and 2016.

dimeji akinloye