The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission yesterday grilled the children of a female judge, Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia at the Lagos office of the commission for several hours.
Impeccable sources within the EFCC disclosed that the judge’s children were grilled as part of the investigations into the allegations that their mother received a total of $793,800 in several tranches from different sources unlawfully between 2012 and 2015.
Ofili-Ajumogobia was alleged to have collected bribes through a company account in Diamond Bank, Nigel & Colive Ltd, which she owns jointly with her children.
According to Punch report, it was through the account that a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Godwin Obla, also allegedly paid a N5million bribe to the judge.
It was learnt that EFCC had invited the judge’s children since last week but they refused to honour the invitation.
Operatives were said to have stormed Ofili- Ajumogobia’s home located on 18 Lai Ajayi-Bembe Street, Parkview, Ikoyi with a search warrant on Wednesday.
However, on getting to the home, the children were said not to be in the house but the judge’s brother-in-law, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia (SAN), who is a former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, went to speak with the detectives.
He was said to have promised to ensure the children were brought to EFCC office in the afternoon.
A detective said, “About a week ago, we gave an invitation letter to Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia and asked her to give it to her two children. However, they never honoured the invitation. So, today (Wednesday), we went to the house with a search warrant but they refused to open the door. A former Minister, Odein Ajumogobia, who happens to be the judge’s brother-in-law, promised us that he would bring the children around 3pm, so we left.
“We invited her children because their names featured in our investigation. So, we invited them to hear their own side of the story. The minister honoured his promise because the children were brought to our officer around 3pm.”
It was learnt that the children were still being grilled as of press time.
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