By Ikechukwu Nnochiri
ABUJA — The Federal Government has preferred fresh charges against Justices Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme Court and Adeniyi Ademola of the Abuja Division of Federal High Court, before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, in Abuja.

The government also, yesterday, tendered into evidence, bags of cash, both foreign and local currencies, allegedly recovered from the official residence of Justice Adeniyi Ademola, who is facing corruption charges.

DOCKED: Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court (left) with his associate (right) and Chief Robert Clark (middle) at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Maitama, Photo: NAN

The duo, who were among seven superior court judges arrested last year by operatives of the Department of State Service, DSS, were accused of contravening the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, Act by engaging in private businesses as serving judges.

The two separate charges initiated by Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, was signed by a Principal State Counsel at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Hajara Yusuf.

It was filed pursuant to Section 24 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act.

Court documents, Vanguard sighted last night revealed that whereas the Federal Government  slammed Justice Ngwuta with a 10-count charge, Ademola, on the other hand, will be docked before the CCT on a two-count charge.

Both Judges are currently facing separate corruption charges before the Federal High Court, Abuja, and FCT High Court, respectively.

Bags of money, guns recovered from Ademola ‘s home

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has tendered into evidence, bags of cash, both foreign and local currencies allegedly recovered from the official residence of Justice Adeniyi Ademola who is facing corruption charges.

The cash, totalling about N39.5 million, was tendered before trial Justice Jude Okeke of an Abuja High Court sitting at Maitama, in a Ghana-Must-Go bag.

At the resumed hearing on the matter, yesterday, the witness told the court that “bags of cash” were found at Ademola’s house during a sting operation the DSS conducted in October last year.

Umar, who was led in evidence by government lawyer, Mr. Segun Jegede, totalled the various sums of money contained in three separate bags as N54m; $171,779; €4,400; £80 and R1,010 (Indian Rupee).

Other items the witness also tendered before the court were two Avar Magnum Pump Action gun registered under the names of Justice Ademola and another Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ahmed Mohammed.

He also tendered two cartridges – a red head of 25 pieces and a white head of 10 pieces along with original copies and photocopies of licenses for the guns in the name of the two Judges.

Aside the N39.5 million contained in a Ghana-Must-Go, the other recovered items, including two iPads and an 8GB flash drive, were tendered before the court in sealed transparent cellophane with different identification numbers.

While identifying the items, th witness said the white bag contained N6m comprising of 12 bundles of N1,000 notes, making N500,000 per bundle.

He said: “My lord the small black bag with a design contains 17 bundles of N1,000 each which equal to N8.5m.

“The ‘Ghana-Must-Go’ (grey in colour) contains 79 bundles making N39.5m.”

He also gave a break down of the dollar denominations as comprising 51 bundles of $100 bills, as well as other lower dollar denominations.

The witness further confirmed to th court that the dollar currencies recovered from Ademola was $121,779 in total, with €4,400; £80 and R1,010 (Indian Rupee).

He said all the recovered item were handed to him item on October 10, 2016, two days after DSS raided Ademola’s home.

“I got to office in the morning of October 10, 2016   and I saw honourable judges, about six or seven of them.

“Then later in the evening Mr. Ike Onuoha, who happened to be the   leader of one of the operatives that conducted the search told me about the items recovered during their raid”.

Meanwhile, none of the defence lawyers raised objection to admissibility of the recovered items including the cash.

Justice Okeke marked the cash as exhibits X, Z, BB, CC, DD, EE and FF and handed it over to the Director of Litigation of the FCT High Court, Mr. Madugu Mohammed for safekeeping.