Babatunde Adepoju, a Department of State Services (DSS) operative, has
alleged that Kola Adewoyin, counsel to President Muhammadu Buhari, gave
Adeniyi Ademola, a judge of the federal high court Abuja, N500,000 while
the president’s certificate forgery case was before him.
Ademola is one of the judges who was arrested by the DSS. He is currently
standing trial alongside Olubowale, his wife, and Joe Agi, a senior
advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
Speaking on Tuesday during a cross examination in the trial of Ademola,
Adepoju, who is a witness, said Agi told him that the money was given to
Ademola during the wedding of the judge’s daughter.
Adepoju said though he did not carry out any investigation, it would be
speculative to say the money was given to Ademola to influence the forgery
case.
“The lawyer gave Justice Ademola N500,000. In my opinion, it would be
speculative to say the gift by President Buhari’s lawyer was a bribe to
Justice Ademola. It is not a bribe,” he said
The DSS operative also said Agi admitted that a gift of N30million was
given to Ademola.
Nnamdi Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe, an Abuja-based lawyer, had filed a suit to
challenge the veracity of Buhari’s WAEC result.
Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe had said Buhari did not meet the educational requirement
to contest for the highest office in Nigeria.
He accused Buhari of lying about sitting for the Cambridge West African
School Certificate (WASC) in 1961.
At the hearing of the suit on May 26, 2016, Buhari through his counsel had
raised an objection to the suit, challenging the mode of service of the
originating summons on him.
He insisted that he ought to have been served at an address in Kaduna
instead of by substituted means at the national secretariat of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja.
However, Justice Ademola, in his ruling, had held that it was incompetent
and upheld the service of the originating court processes on Buhari.
The judge held that the service of the court’s processes on the president
through the secretariat of the APC was in order as the court summons would
get to him even though it was delivered at his party secretariat.
Dissatisfied with this ruling, Buhari through his legal team has filed a
notice of appeal at the court of appeal, Abuja judicial division on seven
grounds of appeal.
Buhari had hired 13 SANs, and 10 other counsels.
Apart from Awodein, some senior lawyers in the case were Wole Olanipekun,
Lateef Fagbemi, Akin Olujinmi, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, Kola Awodein, Taiwo
Osipitan, Charles Edosomwan, Emeka Ngige, Femi Atoyebi, Femi Falana, Funke
Aboyade, H.O. Afolabi, and Muiz Banire.