The National Judicial Council, NJC, said yesterday that it had at the end of its 84th Meeting in Abuja, recommended Justices Adeniyi Ademola and O. O. Tokode for retirement from the Federal High Court Bench.
But Chief Robert Clarke, SAN, a counsel to Justice A. Ademola reacting stated that the Judge retired voluntarily, immediately he was freed by the court of any infractions over the allegations levied against him by the government.
A Federal High Court, FHC, in Abuja had cleared Justice Adeniyi Ademola and his wife, Olabowale, of charges of corruption brought against them by the Attorney General of the Federation.
Chief Clarke in a telephone interview with Vanguard correspondent noted that, “Justice Ademola who was approaching the voluntary retirement age, resigned moment he was absolved of any wrong doings by the court. Though I am not aware of any compulsory retirement as you mentioned now, but all what I know was that he was absolved by the court of any wrong doings.
As it is, he is not found guilty of any offence(s), so I would not know of any compulsory retirement owing to wrong doings. “He retired voluntarily, which I believed he reserved the right to do so. And I am not aware of any appeal against the judgment of the Federal High Court, this is because I am not aware that they compile any record of the court proceedings fortheir appeal. Thank you.”
The Council which is headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Walter Onnoghen, said it found the two Judges guilty of engaging in acts of judicial misconduct.
Justice Ademola who was among eight superior court judges that were arrested after a “sting operation” the Department of State Service, DSS, conducted in October last year, had attempted to outsmart the NJC by voluntarily resigning from the bench late Wednesday night.
He swiftly leaked his resignation letter dated December 6 to the press around 12 midnight on Wednesday.
However, the NJC, in a statement that was signed by its Director of Information, Mr. Soji Oye, maintained that Justice Ademola’s action was belated.
The legal body said it had already written to President Muhammadu Buhari, recommending that the Judge must immediately proceed on compulsory retirement eventhough he would actually be officially due for retirement on April 8, 2018, when he would have clocked the 65 years mandatory retirement age.
However, NJC acknowledged that Justice Ademola had previously on October 10, forwarded to it, his notice of retirement against next year.
The Council said its decision to compulsorily remove Ademola from the bench was pursuant to findings on allegation contained in a petition that was written against him by a group of 8 persons under the name of Committee of Anambra State PDP House of Representatives Members-Elect.
Vanguard
Emeh Achanga,the CEO of the Miss Petite Nigeria Brand is a lawyer turned blogger. She is very passionate about writing, with several publications and awards to her credit .She is currently working on publishing a collection of short stories which are basically a memoir about her exciting true experiences.
