Nigeria, Oct 8, 2016 – The Department of State Security (DSS) has intensified raids on homes of judges alleged to be corrupt in Nigeria. We gathered that the agency carried out raids on residence of judges in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Gombe, Kano, Enugu and Calabar.
Premium Times reported that those whose homes were raided include Justice Adeniyi Ademola, and Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court in Abuja as well as Sylvester Ngwuta and John Okoro and Kabiru Auta. Also raided were homes of Chief Judge of Enugu state, Justice A. I. Umezulike, , Muazu Pindiga(Chief Judge of Gombe State) and Justice Samia of Sokoto State.
“At the residence of Mr. Ademola, the DSS recovered at least $400, 000 and N39 million in cash, in addition to documents of landed properties belonging to the federal judge.
“The raid at Justice Mohammed Liman’s residence in Port Harcourt, our sources said, was ordered to allow operatives search the house because he was believed to be in possession of $2 million”, the newspaper said.
According to the newspaper, documents linking Mr. Ngwuta or Okoro to estates worth over N1.5 billion were recovered from his residence.
The newspaper said the DSS initially submitted parts of its findings to the National Judicial Council(NJC) but that the DSS was miffed that the NJC merely recommended two of the judges for retirement instead of prosecuting them.
Meanwhile, the Department of State Services has said it recovered over N270 Million from the residences of three judges following simultaneous raids on Friday night on residences of over seven justices of the Supreme, Federal and high courts across the country.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja, Mallam Garba Abdullahi said the DSS could not carry out a raid on a Judge in Port Harcourt because Governor Nyesom Wike prevented them from carrying out the mission.
He said the raid was aimed at restoring sanity to the judiciary. According to him, money recovered from the raids include N93,558,000; $530,087; £25,970 and €5,680.
He told reporters that the DSS had intelligence that a Port Harcourt based Judge had $2million cash at home but that it was frustrated by Governor Nyesom Wike allegedly brought in thugs to prevent the service from carrying out its mission.
He explained that the operations were based on allegations of corruption and other acts of professional misconduct by the suspected justices. He said the affected judges were living a life of luxury and have been under the DSS searchlight for some time.
