DSS operative: Buhari’s lawyer gave Justice Ademola N500,000 during certificate scandal

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.