After federal government through the Inspector General of Police arraigned 15 suspects that invaded the residence of Justice Mary Odili of Supreme Court on an 18 count charge on Wednesday December 15, 2021, the trial Court judge Justice Nkonye Maha granted 13 of them N5million bail each.
The judge refused the oral bail application that was argued by Dr M.Y.Suleiman counsel to the 15 defendant Abdullahi Usman. The fourteenth defendants Abdullahi Adamu had no legal representation , therefore he did not file bail application. Justice Maha ordered him to be remanded in National Correctional Centre pending the next adjourned date, January 17 ,2022.
All others who were granted bail were also ordered to be remanded at National Correctional Centre Abuja ,except the only female among the lot ,Maimuna Maishanu who was taken to the female Suleja Correctional Centre. They are all ordered to be held in custody until they meet their bail conditions.
Each of the 13 defendants: Ajodo Lawrence (principal suspect), Michael Diete-Spiff, Bar. Alex Onyekuru, Bayero Lawal , Bar. Igwe Ernest , Aliyu Umar Ibrahim , Maimuna Maishanu , Ayodele Akindipe , Yusuf Adamu , Bashir Musa ASP Mohammed Yahaya, Stanley Nkwazema and Shehu Jibo were asked to provide two sureties each in like sum of the main N5million bail.
One of the sureties must be a responsible citizens with landed property in Abuja .He must show evidence of three years tax clearance certificate . The landed property must be verified by the deputy Court registrar and certificate of ownership deposited with the Deputy Court registrar.
While the other surety must be a civil servant or person in gainfully employed.
Justice Maha also ordered the suspects that were admitted to bail to deposit their international passports with the Deputy Court registrar who will inturn informed the Nigerian Immigration Service of the temporary seizures.
Federal government on Wednesday arraigned the 15 suspects that invaded the residence of Justice Mary Odili of Supreme Court before Justice Maha of the federal high court Abuja on 18 count charge.
The defendants were said to have on October 29, 2021 besieged Justice Odili’s home in Maitama district of Abuja.They were charged with offences of conspiracy, forgery , unlawful force entrance into the justice compound, impersonation etc.
The suspects; Ajodo Lawrence ‘m’ (principal suspect), Michael Diete-Spiff ‘m’, Bar. Alex Onyekuru ‘m’, Bayero Lawal ‘m’, Bar. Igwe Ernest ‘m’, Aliyu Umar Ibrahim ‘m’, Maimuna Maishanu ‘f’, Ayodele Akindipe ‘m’, Yusuf Adamu ‘m’, Bashir Musa ‘m’, ASP Mohammed Yahaya ‘m’, Stanley Nkwazema ‘m’, Shehu Jibo ‘m’ and Abdullahi Adamu ‘m,’ and Abdullahi Usman.’m’ were listed in the charge as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th , 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th respectively .
However, all the defendants pleaded not guilty to the amended charge when they was read to them by the clerk of court.
The prosecutor Matthew .O. Amosun (CSP) then applied to the Court for a trial date and for an order to remand the defendants in the custody of the Correctional centre.
But , Emmanuel Udalor counsel to the 1st defendant and other defendants lawyers to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th ,5th ,6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th,11th 13th insisted they filed bail applications. So the court asked them the applications as the Prosecution counsel told the court he would not oppose them but would leave the issue of bail at the discretion of court.
Dr M.Y.Suleiman counsel to the 15 defendant also move an oral application for bail .
Earlier, during the arraignment the police prosecutor had withdrawn three amended charges filed on November 24, December 1st, and December 10th 2021 in respect of the case to give way to current amended charge filed December 13,2021.
The invasion of Justice Odili’s home has attracted a lot of criticism from several quarters including the apex court , Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria and political class who roundly blamed the executive arm for harassing the judiciary.
Just on Monday , the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria at the valedictory Court session of late Chief judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Adamu Abdu Kafarati, challenged the federal government to charge the suspects that were arrested in October to court.