Justice Odili’s home was invaded by thugs that posed officials comprising the Ministry of Justice, the EFCC, the police and other security agencies.
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) has received the investigative report conducted by chairman of the NBA Section on Public Interest and Development Law (SPIDEL), Dr Monday Onyeakachi Ubani on the invasion of Justice Mary Odili’s home on October 29, 2021.
Justice Mary Odili’s home was invaded by thugs that posed as joint task force officials comprising the Ministry of Justice, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the police and other security agencies.
The invaders obtained a search warrant which the Magistrate that issued it later revoked after spotting inconsistencies in the documentation process. The thugs, at this point, could not be recalled.
Ubani said the starting point for his investigation was whether the Search Warrant that purportedly set the invasion in motion was issued and signed by the Magistrate, His Honour, Emmanuel Iyanna of the Wuse Zone 6 Magisterial Division, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The investigation revealed that the search warrant that triggered the entire situation was duly signed by the Magistrate after one Aliyu Umar Ibrahim who claims to be a whistleblower said he witnessed illegal activities going on in the address that turns out to be Justice Mary Odili’s home.
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The fake whistleblower was in league with one Lawrence Ajodo, a fake senior police officer They both made depositions that ‘some illegal activities’ were taking place at the specified address.
The report however found some slip on the part of the magistrate. The so-called whistle-blower, Aliyu Umar Ibrahim, provided a vague address in the affidavit. He gave as his address No. 9, Maigoro Street, Niger State. He didn’t specify a location in Niger State where the street could be found.
The second slip from the magistrate was that the whistleblower curiously changed his name to “Danjuma Ibrahim,” and no more Aliyu Umar Ibrahim. According to the special investigator, this gives an impression of two persons swearing to the same affidavit. But the magistrate allowed this major slip.
The summary of the report is reproduced here
This unwholesome invasion was set in motion when one Mr. Yusuf Adamu who claims to reside in Gwarimpa, FCT (but who is originally from Bauchi State) had a brainwave about some money stashed in Mr. Peter Odili’s house in Abuja. He lied to his colleagues that he once lived with the Odili’s when he did his Youth Service at Rivers State. His Excellency, Mr. Peter Odili in his extra-judicial statement denied ever meeting or knowing him. According to Yusuf, he met one of his friends, Alhaji Bashir who works with Central Bank of Nigeria in April, 2021.
Their discussion shifted to Mr. Peter Odili who was once the Governor of Rivers State. He told his friend that one Muhammed Dangote who lives in Maraba, Nasarawa State told him that there was a load of money in Mr. Peter Odili’s house in Abuja.
Mr. Bashir advised that the matter should be forwarded to EFCC straightaway. However, both agreed that before they refer the matter to EFCC, they needed a confirmation of the veracity of the money being available in that house from a religious cleric who has to confirm whether there was money or not. The cleric’s name is Aliyu Umaru Ibrahim. Does that name ring a bell? He is the whistle-blower that triggered this invasion by procuring the initial affidavit that Ajodo latched on to do the eventual damage.
Predictably, the cleric “confirmed” that there was much money in the house of Mr. Peter Odili and that the money was still intact. At that point, everyone’s appetite for the money became enlarged and the flurry of activities became heightened.
An attempt was made to bring EFCC into the matter. However, the man who claimed to be a Director in EFCC was in fact a fake EFCC personnel. At the alleged EFCC office, Aliyu Ibrahim Umaru wrote an undertaking to one Solomon who was said to be a P. A. to one of the EFCC Directors, one Mr. Bayero. From this account, the said Aliyu Ibrahim Umaru took over the case from Mr. Yusuf Adamu.
When they met the said Director (in his house instead of EFCC office), he promised to follow the matter legally and officially.
The “Director” made Aliyu Ibrahim to sign undertaking that if he was lying, he would go to jail for 6 months. The alleged Director showed them a document that confirmed the assertion of 6 months jail term for lying on oath.
That was the last the narrator knew about the EFCC angle until, according to him, he opened his phone on 29th October, 2021 and read on the social media that some police operatives invaded the home of Mr. Peter Odili. According to him, he quickly called the alleged EFCC Director, Mr. Bayero and told him what he saw on social media. Mr. Bayero advised him not to worry and that he would call him later. He never did until they all met at the Police Headquarters following their arrest by the police.
The concluding statement of this Accused Person is very apposite. He said:
“I am the person that give (sic) information to Bayero, the alleged EFCC Director that there is money at Peter Odili’s house. I did not see the money at Peter Odili’s House physically. I have never been to Odili’s house before until when I was told by my friend Muhammad Dangote that there was money in the house. This was sometime in the month of April 2021. Muhammed took me to the Odili House in Maitama (House number 7) which I did not enter the compound (sic). The reason why I believe what he told me that (sic) he is working in the house of Odili”.
Evidently, it was this fairy tale as narrated above that apparently birthed greed in everyone who was directly or indirectly linked to the invasion that is now being prosecuted at the Federal High Court, Abuja. Take the whistle-blower, for instance. Everything about him smacks of betrayal and inordinate greed. Recall that he came into this “game” when the originators needed ‘spiritual’ confirmation of the existence of the money.
He not only confirmed that the money was still there but took over the task of being the one to pick the money – recruiting various persons in the process and excluding the initial persons that got him involved in the first place. He displaced others to become the ultimate whistle-blower. At least, he swore the first affidavit over this transaction and would have outsmarted everyone by collecting whether 5 per cent or 2 and half per cent if the deal was genuine.
According to Mr. Aliyu Umaru Ibrahim, who I will refer to as an emergency whistle-blower, he was introduced to Yusuf Adamu who explained to him that Mr. Peter Odili was his master whom he worked with during his NYSC days in Port Harcourt. He bragged to be the godson of the said Odili. Mr. Aliyu Ibrahim became convinced when he swore to this fact with Quran. Mr. Ibrahim took up the responsibility of prayer when Yusuf Adamu explained that his alleged master, Mr. Peter Odili kept large sums of money in his residence which had become a big problem to him. The said money, according to his tale, was owned by three persons who had various issues concerning the money.
By his account, the first man was dead; the second was sick and on the verge of death while the third man is His Excellency, Mr. Peter Odili. The purported problem with Mr. Odili is that he could not touch the money because of the oath they took earlier over the money. Mr. Odili was therefore seriously in search of ‘spiritual cleansing’ before the money could be taken out of his house. Yusuf Adamu then offered himself to engage Mr. Aliyu Ibrahim to do the cleansing.
From this tale and what happened thereafter following his spurious affidavit, it is obvious that greed took over Mr. Aliyu Umaru Ibrahim. Instead of performing the spiritual cleansing for which he was contracted, he swore an affidavit to the effect that he noticed that criminal activities were going on in an uncertain address somewhere in Abuja. By this “smart” move, he became the ultimate whistle-blower on record who would have been the one to engage the government for payment of his fees for providing information that would have led to the recovery of the imaginary large sums of money in Mr. Odili’s house in Maitama, Abuja.
How Mr. Lawrence became another kingpin in this illegal invasion, to the extent that he recruited virtually everyone that became indicted in this saga, is another Nollywood story. When Aliyu Ibrahim was asked to bring guarantors to “EFCC” to authenticate his story, one of the persons he brought was Lawrence Ajodo. The circumstances under which both men met is not too clear from their extra-judicial statements.
HOW AJODO UPSTAGED EVERYONE AND TOOK OVER MANAGEMENT OF THE INVASION.
When the emergency whistle-blower did not have his way in getting “EFCC” to officially commence the investigation and recovery of the alleged large sums of money in Mr. Odili’s home in Abuja, they shifted their attention to the “Joint Recovery Panel” in the Ministry of Justice that allegedly deals with the issue of whistle-blowers and fraudulent money stashed away by criminal minded Nigerians.
Mr. Ajodo, who claimed to be a Chief Superintendent of Police with Force No. 201192, was allegedly in-charge of the Panel or Task Force as O/c Investigation. Mr. Aliyu saw all the documents with him, including the police logo, EFCC, DSS including Coat of Arms, and got convinced about Mr. Ajodo’s ‘genuineness’. His inquiry revealed that Ajodo was attached to Joint Panel Recovery under the Ministry of Justice. With this information he was convinced that he was in the right place with the right people to recover the several billions of naira allegedly in the home of Mr. Odili.
At this juncture, Mr. Ajodo took over the leadership of the whole operation. Having sworn his own affidavit and collected the Search Warrant from the Magistrate Court, he fixed the invasion to take place at 5 pm on 29th October, 2021.
On the agreed date and time, they all assembled at the Ministry of Justice (whether outside the Ministry or inside an office in the Ministry, as their statements were not too clear on this).
One thing was certain: none of the accused persons ever met Lawrence Ajodo sitting in an office space in the Federal Ministry of Justice. On the day of the operation, they met at the Federal Ministry of Justice before proceeding. They (the Defendants) proceeded from the Federal Ministry of Justice car park for the operation. The operation got terminated when they could not gain further entrance into the house of Hon. Justice Mary Odili after entering the compound.
Their journey was terminated by the vigilant Chief Security Officer to the Hon. Justice Mary Odili, ASP Madaki Chidawa whose alertness attracted the attention of Hon. Justice Mary Odili and her daughter, Hon. Justice Njideka Nwosu-Iheme, then a Magistrate at FCT, Abuja at the time of the incident. The Chief Security Officer alerted the household of the presence of the strange visitors in the compound. Hon. Justice Mary Odili asked her daughter and ASP Madaki to go and find out who the strange invaders were.
Refusing to be cowed by the rampaging Lawrence Ajodo and the retinue of security operatives allegedly comprising of operatives from the Army, EFCC, Police, DSS and civilians, Hon. Justice Njideka Iheme-Nwosu demanded to see the search warrant for their assignment. A quick glance revealed apparent error in the document. First, the address for the search was not the same as the house of the Odili’s. The second issue she observed was also the discrepancy in the name of the whistle-blower. Armed with these discrepancies, she convinced herself that group was on a failed mission.
She alerted the Hon. Justice Mary Odili who made a few calls, especially to the Supreme Court authorities. Hon. Justice Odili got a quick response to the effect that the Supreme Court authorities did not send anyone on such an illegal mission.
In a few minutes, the social media was agog with the news of the invasion. Some political officials who were gathered in Abuja got wind of the invasion and rushed to the residence of the Odilis. They were coincidentally accompanied by a crew from a popular Television Station. It did not take long before the home of the Odili’s were on live television broadcast. Almost immediately, the invaders beat a quick retreat, seeing that their unwholesome gambit was now being beamed to the world.
Instructively, the entire nation stood in solidarity with the Odilis, with many viewing the invasion as absurd, illegal and an attempt to intimidate the judiciary. The incident dominated the news media the following day, with newspapers, television stations, the social media and bloggers feasting on the invasion.
The NBA under the leadership of Mr. Olumide Akpata reacted promptly by vigorously condemning the invasion. The NBA followed it up with a World Press Conference during which Mr. Akpata appointed a Special Investigator to find out what happened and identify all the culprits with a view to bring them to justice.
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
It is imperative to state that this invasion was birthed by greed and downright stupidity. Going by the account of all the dramatis personae, there was neither wisdom nor logic in the entire saga.
The cock and bull story of imaginary sums of money stashed away in Mr. Peter Odili’s house was just a mere brainwave of a mind afflicted perhaps by high fever. Before too long, a fable normally told in pepper-soup joints took a life of its own and led to obtaining of court documents to ‘legitimize’ an absurdity.
The fallout was the invasion of the home of a Supreme Court jurist, thereby disturbing the peace of the entire household and ridiculing the Judiciary and the nation at large. The alertness of the security personnel on duty at the home of Hon. Justice Mary Odili thwarted the brazen illegality that was reminiscent of similar raids in 2016 when the homes of various justices were invaded in midnight invasions that shook the entire country.
The vigilance of Hon. Justice Njideka Nwosu-Iheme, who painstakingly reviewed the court documents and identified discrepancies in same, cannot go unnoticed. It is a matter of conjecture whether some politically exposed persons would have owned up to being behind the invasion had it succeeded as that of 2016. It is noteworthy that both the EFCC and the Attorney General of the Federation as well as the Chief Magistrate have washed their hands off the invasion.
Even the Nigeria Police also distanced itself from Mr. Ajodo, the ring-leader who claimed to be their own with Force No. 201192. Finally, Mr. Lawrence Ajodo ultimately denied himself, recanting being a Chief Superintendent of Police!
It is our strong recommendation that under no circumstance should this sad tale be allowed to repeat itself. The judiciary and its officers must be insulated from this sort of base rascality. The Judiciary must not be intimidated, maligned, disrespected or embarrassed in this manner again. This latest invasion must be the last of such misadventures. Accordingly, it is strongly recommended that all the culprits in this invasion and in the 2016 episode must be brought to justice. This is the only way such rascality that borders on judicial intimidation can be nipped in the bud.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Arising from the foregoing, the following are my recommendations:
1. Substantive and procedural laws with elaborate processes and procedures for the issuance of search warrants, arrest warrants, detention orders, extension of detention orders among others should be enacted for the States and the Federal Government by the Legislature.
2. The independence of the Judiciary should not be a matter for negotiation. It is either we have independent judiciary or we choose not to have it. The advantages of an independent judiciary cannot be over-emphasised.
3. The independence of the Judiciary should not only be on paper but should be practicalised. The administrative, operational and financial autonomy of the Judiciary should be total and exhaustive. The Federal and State governments should not be allowed to pay lip service to the independence of the Judiciary.
4. Government Agencies or Security Agencies that tolerate or harbour criminal gangs, touts or law-breakers in and around their offices should be made to answer to their illegal activities by being summoned by the various committees that superintend over them in the Legislature.
5. Ensuring obedience to Court Orders and respect for the rule of law should remain the eternal pursuit of NBA and other professional bodies until these become abiding principles by every government in Nigeria
6. The Special Investigator will hold watching brief on behalf of NBA over the invasion matter which has commenced at the Federal High Court, Abuja. The next adjourned date is 8th April, 2022.
I thank the NBA President, Mr. Olumide Akpata and the National Executive Council for the singular privilege of serving the Bar in this capacity as a Special Investigator to unravel the culprits and the reason behind the embarrassing invasion of the home of Hon. Justice Mary Odili.
