The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), on Saturday dissociated himself from the siege to the Abuja residence of a Justice of the Supreme Court, Mary Odili, by security operatives on Friday night.
He also said he had ordered a probe into the circumstances that led to the reported invasion of Justice Odili’s home.
These were contained in a statement by Malami’s Special Assistant, Media and Public Relations, Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, in which he said the clarification became necessary given the media coverage that the attack received.
Justice Odili is currently the second-most senior Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, next to Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad GCON, the Chief Justice of Nigeria.
“It is important to set the record straight that as the Chief Law Officer of the federation, Malami will not stoop too low to be associated with an apparent inelegant and nasty court process on the strength of which the purported search warrant was procured,” Gwandu said in the statement.
“The media reports on the issue depict too untidy process that could never emanate from the Office of the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.”
The team that led the five-hour stand-off at Justice house was purported to have been members of the Joint Panel Recovery unit of the Federal Ministry of Justice, who claimed to have come with a search warrant issued by a Chief magistrate to search the house.
The stand-off at the house ended after the Magistrate Court said it was deceived into granting the search warrant.
The statement on Saturday explained that the general public needs to know that there was nothing called Joint Panel Recovery Under the Ministry of Justice in the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and by extension the entire Federal Ministry of Justice.
According to the statement, what the ministry has is the Inter-ministerial Committee on Assets Recovery and its mandate does not include sting operations.
The statement further explained that “The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice has since reached out to the relevant authorities for an intensified wider investigation on the matter for necessary actions leading to the prosecution of anyone involved in the matter in view of the fact that the only names on record from the process filed in Court are a purported police officer who claimed to be “O/C Assets Recovery Team” and one Aliyu Umar a deponent in the affidavit.
“The claim of the Chief Magistrate as reported by a section of the media to the effect that he was being misled by the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice into the issuance of the search warrant is equally forwarded to the relevant investigation agencies to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of the purported association of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and which officer if any in the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice is associated with such claimed misrepresentation.”
The current Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in order of ranking are:
1. Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad GCON
2. Mary Odili CFR
3. Olukayode Ariwoola
4. Musa Datijo
5. Muhammad
Kudirat Kekere-Ekun
6. Chima Centus Nweze
7. Amina Augie
Ejembi Eko
8. Uwani Musa Abba Aji
9. John Inyang Okoro
10. Lawal Garba
11. Helen M. Ogunwumiju
12. Addu Aboki
13. I.M. M. Saulawa
14. Adamu Jauro
15. Samuel C. Oseji (recently deceased)
16. Tijjani Abubakar
17. Emmanuel A. Agim
