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How Justice Ademola kept me in prison for refusing to pay him N25Million bribe – Witness reveals
A former Director of Pension Accounts in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Sani Teidi, on Tuesday told a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, how a serving judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Justice Adeniyi Ademola kept him in prison custody for over a year due to his inability to pay a N25m bribe.
Taidi, a prosecution witness told the court that the judge who is standing trial alongside two others for charges bordering on gratification approached his wife through an agent simply identified as Kingsley O., who gave his wife two different account numbers where the N25m should be paid into.
The former Director was on trial before Justice Ademola between 2013 and 2014 over his alleged complicity in the illegal diversion of over N4.6billion pension fund.
Testifying as the sixth prosecution witness, the former Director said his ordeal started when he discovered that about N36m meant for payment of pension and gratuity was diverted into different personal accounts.
He said, “After we made the discovery I sent a petition to the EFCC and ONSA. Committee was set-up which verified my claim.”
Following the discovery, the witness said a committee set up by the Senate also directed that the matter be investigated and the funds recovered.
Stressing that he was surprised when he being a prinicipal witness at the Senate hearing on the missing pension funds was charged to court over the fraud he discovered.
Taidi said, “After the Senate report, I was charged to court. EFCC invited me and asked me to explain what happened to N4.5b and N7.5bn. I submitted to the EFCC the account that was used to remove the money and the mandate.
“One Charles Bonet, a Permanent Secretary (Establishment), was a signatory to one of the accounts. The money was moved from UBA to Union Bank where it disappeared.
“After the investigation, I was charged to court before Justice Adamu Bello of the Federal High Court in Abuja. The charges involved unlawful removal of pension funds totalling about N4.5bn.
“I was charged with others and I was granted bail with one surety in the sum of N10m who must be resident within FCT.
“I fulfilled the bail term by providing one surety that owned property worth N10m and submitted the C of O, as well as surrendered my international passport.
“The case started in 2011. By 2012, EFCC came in with an application of what they called proper case management and the case was withdrawn. The prosecutor in that case was Godwin Obla, SAN.
“While the case lasted, I never jumped bail neither was my bail revoked. The case was later transferred to Justice Adeniyi Ademola.
“We were two of us that were charged. Myself and one Omoefe Odugese. In April 2013, the investigator phoned me at about 9:30pm that the case was coming up before Justice Ademola the following day”.
According to the Director, he told the investigator that it would be impossible for him to make it to the court as scheduled because he was not resident in Abuja and the investigator promised to convey the situation to the court.
He added, “The next thing I knew, Justice Ademola issued a bench warrant for my arrest. There was no summon issued against me before then.
“When I discovered a bench warrant was issued against me, I went to the EFCC and challenged the investigator. He told me that he duly informed the court that he was aware of my movement.
“After I left EFCC, I went home and told my wife that a bench warrant has been issued on me and that I was going to honour it.
“I then took myself to the court and I was remanded. Later, we were arraigned and I was denied bail. After that, somebody pressurised my wife that unless she is able to pay the sum of N25m, that I will die in prison. That I was going to be remanded in prison forever.
“I now petitioned to the Chief Judge, Justice Auta, for transfer of my case to any other court.
“I came back to the court and his lordship, Justice Ademola, brought out the petition and asked if I was the author and I told him yes and he said whether I like it or not he was going to handle the case. He then sent me back to the prison and adjourned the matter sine-die (indefinitely).
“After pressure from my lawyer, he then granted me bail to the tune of N500m with two sureties. He said with the two of them the bail sum would amount to N1bn.
“I met the bail conditions. One of my sureties was Chief Oke and the second was Igbelimeta Farm Projects Ltd. Before then, the person that was acting for his lordship told my wife that unless she paid that money, that even if I perfect the conditions, I would not be released.
“After I perfected my bail, my counsel, Mr. S. I. Ameh, SAN, reminded Justice Ademola that we had an application before him and that the bail conditions have been met.
“Justice Ademola said he was aware. That my case is like that of Boko Haram, kidnapping and terrorism. Therefore he would take his time to study the file before appending his signature. Then the case was adjourned and I was taken back to the prison.
“The next time we met in court, he said sorry that rain fell on my file that there is no way he could look at it until the file dries up. I was taken back to prison custody.
“I was arraigned April 2013. I got to know why my bail was not approved around November. I heard that I would not be allowed to go out until I pay the money to Justice Ademola’s agent, one Kingsley O. who supplied an account number.
“I was told I would not go out because the account submitted by Kingsley O. was not credited. The agent always had foreknowledge of what will happen in court even before sitting. He would tell me that the case would be adjourned maybe from November to December, and when we got to court things usually happened exactly the way he said it would.
“The bail was never approved even when my surety Mr. Okey brought the C of O of his property. Justice Ademola gave him back his file. The surety came to meet me in the prison and told me the judge said he should take back his documents.
“Even when we applied for variation of the bail conditions he never approved it. We applied for variation after Okey withdrew his documents and we were left with only one surety who could not meet up with the N1bn condition.
“The appeal court ordered that the case should be heard by any other Judge of the Federal High Court apart from Justice Ademola”.
NNPCL and Corruption’s Final Throes
By Pius Olasanmi
In the twilight of the Obasanjo administration, when Nigerians were still capable of being outraged, when Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of refineries was a buzzword that still held some mysticism to bamboozle citizens, during a conversation, a certain man said something profound. The man said, “As a businessman, if I were the owner of these refineries, knowing that they are three decades old, I would take the last money I have, hire bulldozers, raze them to the ground, and obtain loans to build new ones.”
When we pressed him further on why he would engage in such waste, he explained that repairing the refineries is the real waste. He explained that even if the TAM were honestly carried out, a thirty-year-old refinery would never compete favourably with a new one that would integrate contemporary technology. Operating at its best, such a refinery would never be comparatively more efficient. It is therefore pointless to have spent another one naira on the refineries at that point.
A few months later, I had a conversation with a then-lawmaker on an entirely different matter. I mentioned that the National Assembly has failed by not crafting legislation that would criminalise and punish public office holders who foist wrong decisions on the country. The logic: a public office holder need not steal to be punished, wrong decisions should attract penalties for an office holder who opts for the worst of all options when there are less injurious ones.
These established premises speak to the ongoing nauseating efforts at revisionism by those who wrecked the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and its previous iteration, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Notably, this campaign to rewrite history is traceable to Engineer Mele Kolo Kyari, the disgraced immediate past Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL and his hirelings. They have suffocated the news and the public opinion space with even more lies than they spun while in office.
The Saint Kyari campaign is anchored on convincing Nigerians that the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna Refineries were fully functional when he was booted out of office. So brazen is the campaign that one of its talking heads challenged the group chief executive officer (GCEO), Engr. Bayo Ojulari, to “inform Nigerians categorically what happened to the functioning refineries he inherited from his predecessor, Engr. Mele Kyari.” The effrontery.
We have not forgotten so soon the charade that followed the baffling claim that Nigeria has spent $2.8 billion on the repair of the refineries, while they are not churning out even a single litre of refined product among them. Saint Kyari and his goons played all manner of tricks, all of which embarrassed President Bola Tinubu, who had counted on ticking off the return to productivity of the refineries as part of his achievements, only to realise that he was deceived into celebrating phantoms. Tragic.
Lest we forget, 200 trucks were arranged as props in a well-directed video clip to celebrate the re-streaming of the Port Harcourt Refinery. The disappointment. Nigerians were to learn from several reports that the Port Harcourt refinery was not producing and was instead using old, stored petroleum products to load trucks. Worse still, the Kyari crew was passing off sanction-tainted Russian-sourced crude oil refined in Malta as locally refined products. More insult was piled on the assault on our collective sensibility with the lies that the Port Harcourt Refinery exported semi-finished products. Brazen.
Meanwhile, Kyari and his hirelings called those who pointed out or protested these glaring scams all manner of names. They hid behind industry technicalities and jargon to create the impression that those of us who knew Nigerians were being robbed did not understand what we were saying. The point remains that a $2.8 billion investment can potentially build a refinery with a capacity of around 100,000 barrels per day (bpd). Of course, the actual capacity of such a refinery will depend on various factors, including the complexity of the refinery, the technology used, and the location. That is the amount that Kyari’s regime at the NNPCL took and did not give Nigerians refined products.
Fast forward to Kyari’s sack and the appointment of Engineer Bayo Ojulari, who has demonstrated that things can indeed be done differently. Kyari’s exit was expectedly followed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) going after him and his associates. The extent of the theft is better understood against the backdrop of N80 billion being found in the bank account of one of his associates. They went on the run.
Perhaps because the EFCC was biding its time on securing international warrants for the arrests of these characters on the lam, they have become emboldened. They have decided to fight back and rewrite the story of their participation in the greatest fraud against Nigerians. Engineer Ojulari’s renewed mindset, which is entrenching a semblance of the transparency Nigerians demand, became their natural target. The demons that once roamed around the corporation came out with malevolence. They started spinning stories of corruption to tarnish the incumbent who refused to hide their crimes. The objective: bring Ojulari down. But alas, he is winning the war as it stands.
His innocence is proven, and it is glaring that those who want him out are mere charlatans who can no longer ply their corrupt wares because of the impact of the new reforms. Corruption in the NNPCL is in its final throes. The fake news being unleashed against the incumbent leadership is akin to corruption’s last kicks as reforms in the sector strangulate it and its practitioners. The reforms must take place in the NNPCL, whether the industry demons like it or not.
As a parting shot, Kyari and his associates would do well to prepare their defence. In addition to accounting for the $2.8 billion they laundered in the name of repairing the moribund refineries, they must also answer for the poor decision to fix that which is irretrievably broken. Awarding contracts for Turn Around Maintenance of 59-year-old refineries that a right-thinking person had suggested should be demolished almost twenty years ago, when they were only 30 years old, is criminal. Trying to deceive Nigerians that the fake repairs worked is treason.
Olasanmi is a public affairs analyst writing from Lagos.
GRANDIS 5STAR LUXURY APARTMENT & SUITES SET TO REDEFINE LIVING IN VICTORIA ISLAND
Set to Rise elegantly against the Lagos skyline, is the Grandis 5Star Luxury Apartment & Suites. According to Adejuwon Ademola, The General Manager of the Development company, it is more than just a residential building
“it’s a lifestyle statement. Standing 17 floors high in the heart of Victoria Island, this revolutionary masterpiece of modern architecture will offer a panoramic 360° view of Eko Atlantic, Victoria Island, and Ikoyi, transforming every apartment into an exclusive penthouse experience for the world’s most discerning elite.”
Developed by Dumarco Construction Limited, a globally acclaimed company with decades of delivering complex, high-value projects in the highly regulated petroleum, oil, and gas industries, Grandis 5Star brings unmatched international safety standards, uncompromising quality, and timeless elegance into Nigeria’s luxury property market.
> “When you live in Grandis, you’re not just buying a home—you’re investing in peace of mind, world-class safety, and an effortless luxury experience that will remain pristine for decades,” says Adejuwon A. Ademola, General Manager of Dumarco Construction Limited.
The Gold Standard in Safety and Quality
Dumarco’s roots in the oil and gas sector mean the company operates to some of the strictest safety protocols in the world. Every stage—from conceptualization, design, construction, to long-term maintenance—follows internationally accepted procedures and quality assurance measures. Cutting corners is simply not in Dumarco’s vocabulary.
> “In the oil and gas industry, there’s no room for compromise. We’ve brought that same discipline and zero-tolerance for mediocrity into property development,” says Ademola. “That’s why Grandis will be one of the safest and most enduring residential developments in Nigeria.”
To ensure transparency and prevent (project complacency), Dumarco deliberately separates the developer, contractor, and consultant roles, engaging only the most competent professionals in each respective field. Dumarco’s project team includes globally recognized contractors such as Julius Berger, Cappa & D’Alberto, and Elalan, Migliore Construczione & Tecniche (MC&T) and their partners VENCO IMTIAZ CONTRACTING COMPANY (VICC) based in Dubai, UAE, Business Contracting Limited, alongside leading consultants like Morgan Omanitan & Abe, LAMBERT, and James Cubitt.
Grandis – Investments, appreciation, returns and profitability
Our selection process for the location of the project alone was pains-taking and completely thorough scientific process. Top professional companies were employed to conduct a scientific data acquisition and analytical survey of the entire Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Lekki and Eko Atlantic before a project site is selected. Analyzing and acquiring areas developmental charts and trends, studying and gathering historical and present sale prices, rental charge and occupancy rates over a 50 year period from every individual street before the selection of the location of any of our developments especially true for the Grandis Project
He adds,
“Our clients and residents can be rest assured that the location of Grandis has been scientifically proven through all existing data to provide our clients with a 100% occupancy rate, highest developmental location, highest rental income and investment returns. ”
The Grandis Experience
Located minutes away from international corporate headquarters, embassies, and landmarks such as Eko Hotel, Radisson Blu, and the Radisson Red, Grandis offers unmatched convenience for professionals, diplomats, and high-net-worth individuals. Every residence is designed for both indulgence and efficiency, with high-grade finishes, smart-home systems, and private amenities that ensure seamless living.
From sunrise over the Atlantic to the glittering Lagos night skyline, residents will enjoy uninterrupted luxury, supported by discreet and highly trained staff, advanced security systems, and a design that prioritizes comfort and privacy.
> “We designed Grandis for people who want everything—security, elegance, convenience, and the assurance that their home will look as spectacular in 20 years as it does on day one,” Ademola notes.
A Legacy That Lasts
With its combination of visionary architecture, peerless safety, and meticulous maintenance planning, Grandis is built to remain iconic for generations. Thanks to Dumarco’s meticulous approach, the building’s service charges are expected to remain low while its value and appeal continue to appreciate over time.
In a market often marred by shortcuts and substandard practices, Mr Ademola says
Grandis stands as a beacon of what luxury living should be—safe, spectacular, and built to last.
“Grandis 5Star Luxury Apartment & Suites — Where safety meets sophistication, and every detail is designed for a life well-lived.”
He added
Website -www.dumarcoltd.com
Project website – www.26idowutaylor.com
Email [email protected]
Tel / WhatsApp +234 9077777883
GM – Adejuwon A. Ademola
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