The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has exonerated his ministry from the invasion of the Abuja residence of Justice Mary Odili of the Supreme Court and has ordered investigation into the matter.
The Maitama residence of Justice Odili was Friday evening invaded by security officials who claimed to be executing a court warrant to search the house.
The warrant was procured from the Federal Capital Territory Chief Magistrate Court by one CSP Lawrence Ajodo who claimed to be attached to the Joint Panel Recovery of the Ministry of Justice.
But in an exclusive response to THE WHISTLER’s enquiry on Saturday , Malami said he is not aware of the existence of any Joint Panel Recovery in the Justice ministry, and vowed to investigate the raid on Odili’s house.
He said,” We do not have “Joint panel Recovery” in the Federal Ministry of Justice; what we have is “inter-ministerial committee on the disposal of Recovered Assets” the mandate of which does not include sting operations.
“We will cause the police to conduct wider investigation of the matter in view of the fact that the only identifiable officer whose identity can be deduced on record from the process filed in court is a purported police officer.”
Chief Magistrate Emmanuel A.Iyanna had late Friday revoked the order of the court for the search of Odili’s residence, saying the order was based “upon misrepresentation” of facts.
”Upon misrepresentation to this honourable court that led to the issuance of a search warrant in favour of Joint Panel Recovery, Ministry of Justice against House No 9, Imo State Street, Maitama Abuja, dated 29th October, 2021.
“In view of the above fact, the said search warrant is hereby revoked,” the court had ordered.
But Malami said he would not allow the matter to end with the revocation of the search warrant, promising to investigate the processes that led to the invasion of the residence of a Justice of the Supreme Court.
“The claim of the chief magistrate to the effect that he was misled into the issuance of the search warrant needs to be investigated also to ascertain the parties or institutions responsible for such claimed misrepresentation,” he said.