How I became regular visitor at EFCC – Justice Abba-Aji

From Godwin Tsa, Abuja

A Justice of the Supreme Court, Uwani Musa Abba-Aji, has narrated how she became a regular visitor at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over corruption allegations she said she knew nothing about, a period she described as “chaotic and very difficult.”

The jurist also disclosed that a travel ban imposed on her and other members of a Supreme Court panel by the United States over a judgment remains in force today.

Justice Abba-Aji made the revelations at the Main Courtroom of the Supreme Court on Friday, in Abuja during a valedictory session held in her honour as she retires from the Bench.

The United States had, a few years ago, imposed a travel ban on some Nigerian politicians and judges over certain judicial pronouncements.

Recounting her time on the Bench, Justice Abba-Aji said some of her challenges became opportunities to stand firm.

“In 2016, while on a programme at Washington DC in the United States of America, I received a call from Hon. Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa (Rtd), the then President of the Court of Appeal.

“She informed me that she had received a petition from the EFCC, through the office of the then CJN, Hon. Justice Mahmud Mohammed, that I needed to go to Lagos to respond to certain allegations.

“My Lords, I did not grasp the weight of what was coming until I became a regular visitor at the EFCC office in Lagos, answering questions about allegations of corruption I knew nothing about,” she said.

She said she was exonerated after the investigations, but could not speak publicly in her own defence because of the conservative nature of judicial office.

Justice Abba-Aji also spoke of the consequences of a judgment she described as widely misinterpreted.

“My time on the Supreme Court bench was also filled with challenges, some of which have served as additional opportunities to stand firm on the side of justice, regardless of the consequences.

“One of such challenging judgements was widely misinterpreted and led to a travel ban to the United States of America being imposed on all members of the panel, a ban which still holds today.

“Such inconveniences were a small price to pay to preserve the chastity of Justice,” she said.

Earlier, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, paid tribute to the retiring justice, as a pioneer, whose career reshaped the place of women in the Judiciary, saying some judicial careers cannot be measured by offices held and years served alone.