Former acting governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, has raised allegations of corruption against Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

He also petitioned the National Judicial Council (NJC) to investigate the judge over allegation of not releasing a copy of the judgment, which sacked him from office to his lawyers.

The chamber of former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Bayo Ojo, lead counsel to Fintiri, in a petition dated 10 October and a follow-up dated 14 October, signed by Duro Adeyele, laid the claim.

According to the chamber, “To begin with, though Tuesday 7 October was a public holiday, I got a phone call at about 6:19 pm from someone who claimed to be the secretary to the presiding judge of Federal High Court No 6, Abuja, intimating me that judgement in the above quoted suit would be delivered the next day Wednesday, 8th October.

“I was not in Abuja and I, therefore, instructed one of my junior colleagues in chambers to go for the judgement. I also emphasised that he should obtain a certified true copy of the judgement, as my expectation was that His Lordship would make a copy of the judgement available to parties knowing the constitutional and political nature of the case. However, no copy of the judgement was made available.

“On getting back to Abuja on the same Wednesday, 8th October, I instructed one of my junior colleagues in chambers to apply for a certified true copy of the said judgement to concretize the notice of appeal, which I had instruction of my client to file.

“However, up till close of business of that day, the judgement was not made available. Nevertheless, I still went ahead to file a notice of appeal based on what my junior heard in court.

“My Lord, to my shock and surprise, up till the close of business the next day, Thursday and Friday, Ademola J. refused to release the said judgement and there is no indication from the court when it will be ready and made available to me. One would expect that in a matter such as this, his Lordship should have gotten the judgement ready before delivering same.”

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