Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has refuted claim by one of the suspects arrested over the raid on the Abuja residence of Justice Mary Odili.
Earlier, one Lawrence Ajojo claiming to be a Chief Superintendent of Police, had alleged that he is Malami’s consultant after being paraded for leading armed men to the residence of the judge.
“I am not an officer of the Nigeria Police but a consultant for the AGF; he did not send us to raid Mrs Odili’s house,” Ajojo said.
This was after the Police at Force headquarters on Thursday paraded 14 suspects over the invasion of the Abuja residence of Supreme Court Justice, describing them as impostors who were unknown to any of the nation’s security forces.
Force Public Relations Officer, CP Frank Mba who paraded the suspects at Force Criminal Investigations Department, said one of them is a fake Chief Superintendent of Police, (CSP Lawrence Ajojo) while seven others who are still at large conspired to raid the residence following information that the Supreme Court Justice was keeping a large sum of money in foreign currencies.
Reacting to the allegation, Malami described Ajojo as a “drowning man scavenging for a dying partner.”
In the statement released by his media aide Umar Gwandu, the suspect was also asked to “present documents of engagements where he worked as a consultant to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, whether in past or now.”
The statement read “The attention of the Office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice has been drawn to a confession of a suspect during interrogation in the investigation of the recent invasion of the residencecof the highly respected Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Mary Peter Odili.
“With all the competent, high level professionals and capable human resources available at the disposal of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, it only takes the imagination of the evil minds to assume or think that the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice will descend so low to engaging a quack or fake police officer to serve as his consultant.
“We are happy to note that investigation has commenced to unravel the circumstances and personalities behind the invasion and sponsored campaign of calumny against the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.
“It is our desire and we hope that the investigation would also disclose those after the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, those dragging his personality, his name and his exalted office in the dirty politics of disrepute. This is an orchestrated attempt to stir unnecessary controversies and Public apprehension.
“We asked the suspect to present documents of engagements where he worked as a consultant to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, whether in past or now.
“Consultant for what? Which activity or assignment? When was he engaged? What were the terms of references for the alleged consultancy service? When was he engaged? Where was he engaged? Which worked has he executed for the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and the Ministry of Justice? For what duration? And for how much?”
Recall that scores of security operatives had invaded the residence of Supreme Court Justice, Mary Odili’s Maitama residence on the grounds of alleged tip-off by a whistleblower, one Aliyu Umar, who claimed to have observed suspicious activities at the Supreme Court Justice’s residence
Consequently, Chief Magistrate Emmanuel Iyanna, was said to have approved the search warrant by a body identified as the Joint Panel Recovery unit in the Ministry of Justice, on October 29, 2021, leading to the invasion of Justice Odili’s home.
The magistrate later revoked the order, saying he was misled while the Police and other security agencies also said they were not aware of the raid.
