Reasons for the rancorous relationship between Justice Adeniyi Ademola of a Federal High Court in Abuja, and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, were revealed on Saturday.
According to some of the documents obtained by
SUNDAY PUNCH, the turbulent relationship between the duo started in 2006.
Justice Ademola, who was one of the seven judges arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services on allegations of corruption during simultaneous raids on their homes between October 7 and 8, 2016, stated this in a letter to the National Judicial Council.
Justice Ademola, in his letter dated October 11, 2016 and addressed to the Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman of the NJC, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, alleged that the ordeal he faced during the raid on his home and his subsequent arrest was instigated by Malami.
He explained that Malami instigated his arrest to take his pound of flesh after he (the judge) had pressed a case of professional misconduct against the minister while he (the minister) was still practising as a lawyer in Kano.
The judge said he was then a judge of the Federal High Court serving in the Kano Division.
An extract from the letter read, “What is more intriguing in this whole episode is that I see it as revenge from the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami. While I was in Kano between 2004 and 2007 as a Federal High Court judge, he was involved in a professional misconduct necessitating his arrest and detention by my order.
“However, with the intervention of the Nigerian Bar Association, Kano branch, the allegation of misconduct was later withdrawn by me.
“Consequently, the National Judicial Council referred Abubakar Malami (SAN) to the Nigerian Bar Association’s Disciplinary Committee.”
Documents obtained by SUNDAY PUNCH revealed how petitions dated October 10, 2006 and December 11, 2006, sent by Malami to the NJC against Justice Ademola allegedly backfired.
The minister was forced to withdraw the petition through a letter dated December 14, 2006, but the NJC considered the withdrawal to be late.
In one of the documents obtained by our correspondent, the minister indicated in a correspondence to the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee, the body that confers SAN rank on deserving lawyers, how his allegation against the judge had cost him the rank of SAN in 2007.
He subsequently wrote a letter to the LPPC indicating that he had apologised and obtained Justice Ademola’s forgiveness so that the matter would not jeopardise his bid to become a SAN in 2008.
In one of the said petitions against Justice Ademola, Malami was said to have made a claim which he attributed to his client, that the judge had an interest in the proceeds of a case which was the subject matter of a suit the judge was presiding over.
culled from Punch
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