An Abuja division of the Federal High court has on Wednesday arraigned 15 out of the 22 suspects linked to the raid of the Supreme Court judge, Justice Mary Odili’s residence in Abuja. The suspects were arraigned before Justice Nkeonye Maha.
The suspects who were brought to court by police officers pleaded not guilty to the 18-count charge proffered against them by the Federal Government which bordered on forgery, criminal trespass, intimidation and extortion. While the Federal Republic of Nigeria is the complainant in the suit, 22 names were listed as defendants of which 15 were arraigned and seven at large.
In a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/ 436/2021, the suspects included: Adjodo Lawrence, Michael Diete-spiff, Alex Onyekuru, Bayero Lawal, Igwe Ernest, Aliyu Umar Ibrahim, Maimuna Maishanu, Ayodele Akindipe (Aka Herbalist) and Yusuf Adamu, Bashir Musa, Stanley Nkwazema, Shehu Jibo, Abdulahi Adamu, Mohammed Yahaya and Abdulahi Usman.
Backstory
On October 29, security operatives invaded the residence of Justice Odili in Abuja with a search warrant issued by a magistrate court.
The raid on Justice Odili’s residence had been widely condemned by Nigerians, courts, interest groups, politicians, the Supreme Court, The Nigerian Bar association, human rights commission and state governors among others.
The Attorney-General of the Federation, the Inspector-General of Police, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Department of State Services had all denied involvement and authorisation of the raid.
On November 11, the police paraded 14 suspects at the Force Headquarters annex in Abuja which included a fake chief superintendent of police by the name Lawrence Adjodo.
What happened in court
- 15 out of the 22 suspects were arraigned before justice Maha on an amended 18-count charge.
- Counsel to the defendants told the court that they had filed an application for bail before the court.
- The prosecution counsel did not oppose the bail application.
- Justice Maha admitted to bail 12 out of the 15 arraigned suspects in the sum of N5 million each.
- As part of the bail conditions, the 12 suspects are to produce two sureties each of which one must own a landed property in Abuja with a verified certificate of occupancy and the other, well-employed in Abuja with evidence of three years tax clearance.
- The 11th who is an assistant superintendent of police, the 14th and 15th defendants were all not granted bail because their bail application was not before the court.
In case you missed it
Nairametrics reported that the Nigerian Police Force announced the arrest of 14 persons connected with the invasion. We also reported that the Supreme Court reacted to the invasion saying the attack depicted a gory picture of war by armed persons suspected to be security operatives representing government agencies.
It was also later reported that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) criticised the raid and called for the perpetrators of the act to be prosecuted.
