‘We Recommended Justice Ademola’s Sacking To Buhari’ – NJC

Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court who tendered his resignation on Wednesday, December 6, had already been recommended for compulsory retirement alongside Segun Tokode over acts of misconduct, PUNCH reports.

The National Judicial Council said this on Thursday in a statement by its Director of Information, Mr. Soji Oye.

Oye said that the council at its meeting on Wednesday recommended the two judges to President Muhammadu Buhari for compulsory retirement.

“He explained that the NJC, under the chairmanship of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, sanctioned Justice Ademola after finding the allegations contained in a petition sent against him by eight persons under the name of ‘Committee of Anambra State PDP House of Representatives Members-Elect.’

“The public is hereby informed to disregard news circulating on some news media that Hon. Mr. Justice Ademola has voluntarily retired. The purported voluntary retirement is clearly an afterthought as Council had taken action before his decision to forward any voluntary retirement letter.”

Part of the allegations he was said to have been found to be culpable of was that the Certified True Copy of a judgment he delivered contains a paragraph that was not read in open court.

Justice Tokode ,who was appointed to the Federal High Court bench in 2015, was accused in a petition sent by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project and Miss Abimbola Awogboro, of making false claims to the Federal Judicial Service Commission and the NJC over his appointment qualification.

He was said to have submitted six judgments he claimed to have personally conducted while practising as a lawyer.

Only one of the judgments was said to be truly conducted by him.

The submission of six judgments to the FJSC and NJC was said to be a pre-requisite for his application for appointment as a judge.

He was therefore ordered to refund the salaries and allowances he earned since his “purported appointment to the position of a judge” to the coffers of the judiciary.