Abuja – The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), on Saturday distanced himself from the reported invasion of the residence of a Justice of the Supreme Court, Mary Odili, by security operatives.
He also ordered a probe into the circumstances surrounding the raid of the justice’s home.
A statement by his Special Assistant, Media and Public Relations, Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, said the clarification became imperative in view of the media hype and the dimension the story had taken.
He said, “It is important to set the record straight that as the Chief Law Officer of the federation, Malami will not stoop too low to be associated with an apparent in-elegant and nasty court process on the strength of which the purported search warrant was procured.
“The media reports on the issue depict too untidy process that could never emanate from the Office of the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.”
He said the general public needs to know that there was nothing called Joint Panel Recovery Under the Ministry of Justice in the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, and by extension the entire Federal Ministry of Justice.
According to the statement, what the ministry has is the Inter-ministerial Committee on Assets Recovery and its mandate does not include stings operations.
The statement further read, “The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice has since reached out to the relevant authorities for an intensified wider investigation on the matter for necessary actions leading to the prosecution of anyone involved in the matter in view of the fact that the only names on record from the process filed in Court are a purported police officer who claimed to be “O/C Assets Recovery Team” and one Aliyu Umar a deponent in the affidavit.
“The claim of the Chief Magistrate as reported by a section of the media to the effect that he was being misled by office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice into the issuance of the search warrant is equally forwarded to the relevant investigation agencies to ascertain veracity or otherwise of the purported association of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and which officer if any in the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice is associated with such claimed misrepresentation.
Precise Post recalls that security operatives have raided the home of Mary Odili, a justice of the Supreme Court, in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The justice is the wife of Peter Odili, a former governor of Rivers State, who is currently on the watchlist of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The force men consisting of soldiers and officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) identified themselves as members of a joint task force.
They arrived with a search warrant, saying they received information on “illegal activities” going on in the house.
The security operatives were, however, said to have not discovered anything of interest in relation to the alleged illegal activities, and left after about an hour.
Earlier, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has denied being involved in the search.
A statement from the EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren read: “The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been drawn to claims in a section of the media that operatives of the commission today, October 29, 2021 stormed the Maitama, Abuja home of a Judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Mary Odili, purportedly to execute a search.
“The commission by this statement wishes to inform the public that the report is false as it did not carry out any operation at the home of Justice Odili.
“If there was any such operation as claimed by the media, it was not carried out by the EFCC. The commission enjoins the public to discountenance the report.
