By Ebitonye Akpodigha
One of the judges accused by the Department of State Security (DSS) of collecting bribe, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, has announced his withdrawal from the case of former National Security Adviser (NSA), Mr Dasuki Sambo.
Justice Ademola is a Federal High Court judge.
At the resumption of trial today, Justice Ademola explained that he was sending back the case file of Dasuki to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Atta, so as to reassign it to another judge.
According to him, he decided to withdraw from the case based on the allegations of corruption levelled against him by the DSS.
Justice Ademola further said his longstanding misunderstanding with the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), was also part of the reasons for his decision.
In a letter to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Mahmud Mohammed through the CJ Federal High court, Justice Ademola had accused the AGF of trying to get back at him.
“What is more intriguing in this whole episode is that I see it as a vendetta/revenge from the Hon. Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN),” part of the letter read.
“Whilst I was in Kano between 2004 to 2008 as a Federal High Court judge, he (the AGF) was involved in a professional misconduct necessitating his arrest and detention by my order.
“However, with the intervention of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Kano Branch, the allegation of misconduct was later withdrawn by me.
“Consequently, the National Judicial Council (NJC) referred Abubakar Malami (SAN) to the NBA Disciplinary Committee for disciplinary action.
“It was as a result of this he was denied the Rank of SAN by the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee for a period of four years until when he produced a fake letter of apology, purportedly addressed to me.
“It was then he was conferred with the rank. Since the above incident, Abubakar Malami (SAN) has threatened to revenge and swore to do anything to bring me down,” Justice Ademola narrated in the letter.
Also, the judge claimed he is being targeted because he granted bail to Mr Dasuki, and Mr Nnamdi Kanu, a pro-Biafra leader, both who are still in custody of the Nigerian government.
