A witness in the ongoing trial of a Federal High Court Judge, Adeniyi Ademola, has stated that various amounts of foreign and local currencies were found in the defendant’s residence during a midnight raid by operatives of the State Security Service in October last year.
The witness, Ike Onuoha, an operative of the SSS, also said the operatives involved in the raid were told by Mr. Ademola’s domestic workers that he was out of town, although the defendant was inside the house.
According to the witness, Mr. Ademola’s security officials had told the operatives that his cook, simply identified as Ken, was the person in possession of the keys to the house.
“When we entered the premises, we called on Ken to call the judge with his mobile phone. Ken called the judge several times but he refused to pick. Much later, the judge sent a text message that he was not in town.
“After repeated calls, he switched off his phone. At that point, we had no option than to force open the main door. When we entered, we saw Justice Ademola in the master’s bedroom upstairs in his night wears. That was few minutes after 12 midnight.”
Mr. Onuoha added that they found N8.5 million inside another room, after they forced their way in, when the keys to the room was denied them.
“The money was in N1,000 denomination. We also found the sum of N6 million, $121,179, €4,400 Euros, £80 and 1,010 Indian Rupees.
“In addition to that; we recovered six ATM cards, eight cheque books, eight deposit slips for various banks, two firearm licences – one for Honourable Justice A.R. Mohammed,” Mr. Onuoha told the court.
Mr. Onuoha said they also found other huge sums of money in various parts of the house, including a wardrobe they searched inside Mr. Ademola’s residence.
“Inside the wardrobe, we found a Ghana-must-go bag containing various N1,000 denomination notes to the tune of N39.5 million after counting it on the spot. We also found two black pump action rifles and 35 life cartridges of ammunition. These weapons were contained in two separate black bags; the cartridges were contained in one black bag. We also found a silver coloured flash drive”, he said.
The witness denied allegations that Mr. Ademola was targeted for a ruling he gave regarding the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
He also said the rifles recovered at the residence had renewable licences and that they are no effort to contact Mr. Mohammed, another judge at the FHC whose name was on one of the licences of the recovered guns.
The case was adjourned to Wednesday for continuation of trial.
