Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court Abuja says his arrest by the Department of State Services (DSS) was due to a grudge the Attorney General of the Federation Abubakar Malami has against him.
Ademola who was one of judges arrested last Saturday in a raid by the DSS also said his rulings ordering the release of former National Security Adviser Colonel Sambo Dasuki and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was one of the reasons he was arrested.
He stated this in a letter dated October 11, addressed to Mahmoud Mohammed, Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).
“…Upon signing the document, they told me that I am under arrest and ordered me with guns still pointed at me to move outside. As I was going, they told me they were taking me to their office, Department of State Services (DSS) office, without showing any warrant of arrest,” the letter read.
“I obeyed them and about six o’clock in the morning, I was whisked away from my residence to the DSS office without any warrant of arrest or reason for my arrest.
“From the time of my arrival at the DSS office, at about 6:45am on 8/10/2016, I was not told what my crime was for over 24 hours till the evening of 9/10/2016.
“A DSS officially finally informed me that the search of my arrest were based on these three allegations; petition of Hon. Jenkins Duvie dated 4th of April 2016 to the National Judicial Council (NJC); granting bail to Col. Sambo Dasuki and the unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu; and using my office to secure my wife’s appointment as the head of civil service state through Senator Bola Tinubu.
“What is more intriguing in this whole episode, is that I see it as a vendetta/revenge from the Hon. attorney general of the federation, Abubakar Malami, whilst I was in Kano between 2004 and 2007 as a federal high court judge was involved in a professional misconduct necessitating his arrest and detention by my order,” he said.
“However, with the intervention of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Kano branch the allegation of misconduct was later withdrawn by me.
