How whistleblower misled FG to besiege Justice Odili’s Abuja home

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri – Abuja

An Abuja Chief Magistrate Court sitting at Wuse Zone 6, has accused the Federal Government of misleading it to issue a search warrant against a Justice of the Supreme Court, Mary Odili.

Justice Odili is currently the second most senior jurist of the apex court, after the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Ibrahim Muhammad.

Her home in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, situated at No. 9, Imo Street, Maitama, was on Friday, besieged by security operatives who claimed their action was based on a valid court order.

However, a few hours after the order was issued, the Chief Magistrate Court, revoked it on the ground that it was deceived by the Joint Panel Recovery unit of the Federal Ministry of Justice.

The revocation order came at a point Vanguard learned that the CJN, Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, who was said to have been perturbed by the development, ordered the Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, to query the Magistrate.

“The CJN was very upset when he heard that the home of Justice Odili was besieged by security agencies. His anger further heightened when he learned that action of the security agencies was based on an order from a Magistrate Court in Abuja.

“Honourable Justice Muhammad is a man that takes the welfare of not just justices of the Supreme Court, but every judicial officer in the country very serious.

“You will recall that he seriously condemned the action of the Department of State Services, when its operatives invaded homes of judges in 2016”, a top source at the Supreme Court told Vanguard.

Meanwhile, Magistrate Emmanuel Iyanna, who granted the order for Justice Odili’s Abuja home to be searched, said he was deceived to do so through misrepresentation of facts by two affidavits that were deposed to by a self-acclaimed whistleblower, Aliyu Umar and a senior Police Officer, CSP Lawrence Ajodo.

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