Fiery
constitutional lawyer, Mike Ozekhome has called on the Federal
Government to immediately issue a public apology to Justice Adeniyi
Ademola and family.
Activist and human rights lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, SAN
Activist and human rights lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, has called on
the Federal Government to tender a public apology to Justice Adeniyi
Ademola of the Federal High Court Abuja over the raid at his home by
operatives of the Department of State Service, DSS, and his subsequent
arrest and trial on “false corruption charges.”
Ozekhome said this while reacting to the ruling given by Justice
Jude Okeke of the FCT High Court in which he dismissed all the
corruption charges preferred against Ademola by the federal Government.
In a statement personally signed by the constitutional lawyer, he
said the apology should be tendered to Ademola’s wife, Olabowale, and a
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Joe Agi, who were involved in the trial with
the embattled judge.
Ozekhome appealed to the National Judicial Council, NJC, to
immediately recall Justice Ademola back to the Bench and the Lagos state
government should also recall Ademola’s wife back to her post.
In the statement titled: “The discharge of Justice Niyi Ademola,
Wife and Joe Agi, SAN; Matters Arising,” Ozekhome said the discharge of
the accused persons based on their no-case-submission, was “an obviously
laughable and anti-climax after all the “gra gra”, grand standing,
posturing, rabble rousing and wanton degradation of the judiciary by
their transducers”.
The statement reads, “This discharge, after the horrific
humiliation of Justice Ademola, whose home was savagely invaded by
rampaging, masked and hooded DSS operatives, between the ungodly and
unholy hours of 12 mid night to 5am! Windows and doors were bestially
broken down and the Judge whisked off like a common criminal inside a
pick up van.
“We were told to shut up, not to complain, because the
government was fighting the monster called corruption. Never mind that
the inner corridors and dark recesses of the same government reek and
stink of putrid and horrendous corruption, with the very government
rising up on each occasion to defend its corrupt officials.
“A case of wanting to sweep your neighbour’s house clean when
your own house is dirty and stinking. A clear case of attempting to
remove the mole from your neighbour’s eye when a log is embedded in
yours.
“Justice Ademola was forced to abdicate his judicial functions.
It was argued by the anti- corruption revisionists and tyrannical
dictators led by the never accountable Presidential Anti-Corruption
Advisory Committee (that has since usurped the powers of the Attorney
General of the Federation under section 174 of the 1999 Constitution and
who are using the anti corruption mantra to settle scores and overwhelm
and suffocate opposition, dissenting voices and critical segments of
the society, that the DSS could never err.
“They stood logic on its head, bastardised the Constitution and
our corpus juris.They even extended DSS’s internal security functions
to include fighting corruption, if need be, in our matrimonial bedrooms
and breaking down houses of suspects who did not even resist arrest.
“Justice Ademola ‘s wife was promptly sacked as Head of Service
of Lagos state government. They were convicted and punished them
unheard.
Even God Himself, being ever so omniscient and omnipotent, did
not do that to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, notwithstanding that
He had already seen them committing the offence of eating of the
forbidden fruit.
“He still gave them a fair hearing before punishing them.
Justice Ademola and other judges of the Supreme Court were tried and
convicted in the media by the DSS and EFCC and adjudged guilty in the
Court of public opinion,even without trial.
“The Anglo-Saxon criminal justice system which is accusatorial,
ie, presumption of innocence, rather than guilt, was discarded for the
French model which is inquisitorial.
“We were inundated with outright lies and shameless falsehood
that the DSS could never err because it was fighting corruption. The
same DSS is now being crudely vilified by the same anti-democratic,
anti-rule of law elements for indicting Magu twice in its damning
reports.
“Suddenly, DSS is corrupt, lacks integrity and such balderdash.
EFCC has shown itself to be an expert in procuring cheap ex-parte
injunctions against innocent souls whose accounts and properties are
brazenly frozen and attached without the owners’ knowledge.
“When the real trial commences, their legal hollowness and emptiness stare them in their opaque and vindictive faces.
“Ademola’s discharge without even being called upon to defend
himself, is a great and bitter lesson to this government that is fast
descending into the abyss of fascism, dictatorship, tyranny and
absolutism, through the cheap, self-serving, low quality advice of its
minders; that the fundamental rights of Nigerians remain inalienable and
inviolable; that the judiciary and rule of law remain necessary
indispensable concomitants and corollary adjuncts of constitutional
democracy which we operate.
“That rule of Law, rather than rule of the thumb and brute force, is what determines the success or otherwise of democracy.
“To remove the odious and negative tar of shame, odium and
obloquy on these respected members of the society, the EFCC and federal
government must make restitution by tendering a public apology
immediately to Justice Ademola,his wife and Mr Joe Agi,SAN.
“The NJC should immediately recall justice Ademola to commence
sitting on the Bench. The Lagos state government should immediately
recall Ademola’s wife to her post. “We must be careful not to derail
this hard won democracy, which some of us used the best part of our
youth fighting for and are still fighting for.
“Those currently running and ruining the country were nowhere
to be found then. They comfortably hid behind their wives’ backs. Like
Roman’s Emperor Nero, they enjoyed and pursued triffles while their
country’s edifice burnt”.
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