Justice Adeniyi Ademola, a judge of the Federal High Court Abuja has narrated a chilling ordeal in the hands of men of the Nigeria State Security Services (SSS), also popularly known as DSS.
According to Ademola, he was arrested by the DSS because he granted Sambo Dasuki bail and freed Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB).
Last weekend, some judges’ homes were raided by the DSS on allegations of corruption.
But in a letter dated October 11 2016, addressed to Mahmoud Mohammed, Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Ademola narrated a chilling encounter with the DSS agents who stormed his residence gestapo-style, abducted him and detained him for over 24 hours before he was told the reason why he was brought to the DSS office.
“To my surprise, I saw about 45 Masked Officers of the Department of State Security Services (DSS), all heavily armed, pointing their guns at me”, Ademola recounted the brazen invasion of his residence.
In Ademola’s account, one of the agents threatened that if they killed him, there was no record of them being at his home and he ”just would die for nothing”.
His account added that when the agents knocked down his doors and finally gained entry into his bedroom, they told him that they had already recovered undisclosed amounts of cash in the visitor’s room downstairs. Then they proceeded to coerce him at gunpoint into signing documents he knew nothing about.
“…Upon signing the document, they told me that I am under arrest and ordered me with guns still pointed at me to move outside. As I was going, they told me they were taking me to their office, Department of State Services (DSS) office, without showing any warrant of arrest,” Ademola’s letter read.
“I obeyed them and about six o’clock in the morning, I was whisked away from my residence to the DSS office without any warrant of arrest or reason for my arrest.
“From the time of my arrival at the DSS office, at about 6:45am on 8/10/2016, I was not told what my crime was for over 24 hours till the evening of 9/10/2016.
“A DSS officially finally informed me that the search of my arrest were based on these three allegations; petition of Hon. Jenkins Duvie dated 4th of April 2016 to the National Judicial Council (NJC); granting bail to Col. Sambo Dasuki and the unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu; and using my office to secure my wife’s appointment as the head of civil service state through Senator Bola Tinubu.”
Ademola said he saw his arrest as revenge from Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation (AGF), whose arrest and detention he ordered over a professional misconduct while he was judge in Kano between 2004 and 2008.
“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, whilst I was in Kano between 2004 and 2007 as a federal high court judge was involved in a professional misconduct necessitating his arrest and detention by my order,” he said.
“However, with the intervention of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Kano branch the allegation of misconduct was later withdrawn by me.”
Ademola’s account bears close resemblance to threats by DSS agents to shoot Governor of Rivers State Nyesom Wike after he foiled the attempted arrest and abduction of another judge during the DSS raid on judges in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State. “The DSS, Police they cocked their guns and said they will shoot me. And I told them I have never heard this type of thing happen before. Again this is to show that more of this will come”, Wike recounted the incident.
Online newspaper, The Trent reports that Ademola’s great grandfather, Oba Ladapo Ademola II, was one of the foremost post independence monarchs in Nigeria.
“He is a royal prince of Egba Kingdom in Yorubaland. He comes from a lineage of tough leaders who serve with integrity. His grandfather, Sir Adetokunbo Ademola, was the first ever Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, he was also the first Nigerian to be appointed a judge. His father was Justice Nekan Ademola, an erudite appeal court judge.
“Justice Ademola is a member of the core Yoruba elite. The Ademolas are loved, respected, in fact, revered in Yorubaland. Our investigations reveal that he is a very loved and distinguished person who is upright and had built a reputation for being incorruptible and fearless in interpreting the law”, the report said.
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