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Supreme Court Justice Mary Odili
The invasion, yesterday, Friday, October 2, 2021, of the home of Supreme Court Justice Mary Odili arose from an apparently false alarm by a whistleblower, it has been revealed. The whistleblower, Aliyu Umar, claimed to have observed illegal activities going on at the property, No. 9, Imo Street, Maitama, Abuja, according to a Saturday PUNCH report.
The report said it was based on Aliyu Umar’s claims that the Joint Panel Recovery unit of the Federal Ministry of Justice obtained a warrant from an Abuja Chief Magistrates’ Court to search the house. The panel comprises the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Nigeria Police Force and the Ministry of Justice.
Umar’s affidavit dated October 13, 2021, read in part, “I have observed some illegal activities going on in those houses within Abuja are illegal and hereby report the said matter to the law enforcement agency.
“I hereby state that all information provided by me to the EFCC is true and correct to the best of my knowledge,” according to Saturday PUNCH.
It said that in a second affidavit deposed to by a senior police officer, CSP Lawrence Ajodo, the panel applied to the chief magistrate in Abuja seeking a search warrant to search the house.
“The Chief Magistrate, Emmanuel Iyanna, subsequently approved the search warrant on October 29, 2021.
“Armed with the search warrant, the police and other members of the panel stormed the house which turned out to be the home of Supreme Court Justice Mary Odili, who is also the wife of former Governor Peter Odili of Rivers State.
“She was said to have resisted the attempts by the policemen to search her house, insisting that the house belonged to her and not her husband,” the report said.
It quoted a top source as saying: “EFCC operatives armed with a search warrant stormed Justice Odili’s home today, claiming to be investigating her husband. Justice Odili insisted that it was her personal house and not her husband’s.”
However, “amid the controversy, however, the chief magistrate issued an order on Friday night accusing the government of misleading the court,” the report said.
