DSS planted hard currency in my house - Justice Ngwuta
Fri Oct 21, 2016 06:30:pm National
10.2K By sosa hills
Justice Nwali Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme Court, whose official residence was recently raided by the DSS, has said the monies allegedly found in his home were planted by the agency to nail him.
He stated this in a letter he wrote to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed.
The judge said the monies that were found in his house were about N400,000, and not the huge local and foreign currencies reportedly recovered from him during the DSS invasion of October 7 and 8.
Justice Ngwuta attributed his plight to former Rivers State Governor and Minister of Transport, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, who allegedly solicited his assistance to nullify Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose's election in favour of Kayode Fayemi who lost in the poll.
The letter reads in part: "One of them saw the sum of N40,000 and one thousand naira note in one of the drawers. He was excited and called their lead who saw the money and said: "This is not the kind of money we came to pick".
"After many hours they came down to the sitting room downstairs and told me they were going to bring down the bags.
"I was speechless when I saw them bringing out huge bundles of different currencies from the bags that had contained only magazines, papers and old clothes and some were empty. Some were contained in multi coloured plastic bags which they tore and discarded. They put the money in different bags and brief cases and then proceeded to count a large amount of N5, N10, N20 and N50 notes which was the change I returned each time I went to shop over the years. They kept waking me up to ask how I came about the small denomination of Naira notes. No one asked me any question about the huge sums of money they put in the bags.
"One of them came to where I was lying down and ordered me to sit up. One of the gunmen who stood a few feet from me came and stood next to me with his gun drawn. I was ordered to sign a paper which they said contained a list of what they were taking away. Confronted with the life threatening situation, I made an instant mental decision that it was better for me to comply with their orders and stay alive to tell my story rather than get shot and killed on the pretext that I attacked them or that I tried to escape.
"I signed the paper and wrote my name as ordered. No one told me what offence I was alleged to have committed. No one told me of any petition or allegation against me.
"The only bag that contained money was the small bag I locked with a padlock which I unlocked when ordered to do so. The bag contained the sum of $25,000, £10 and a brown envelope containing the sum of N710,000 which was a monthly allowance paid to me for September 2016. In the brief case, which I carry to my office daily, I had the sum of N300,000 and some loose change. The above are the only sums of money taken from me along with my phones, papers and other household items.
I do not know how they came about the huge sums of money I saw for the first time in my parlour on the early hours of Saturday, 8th October, 2016.
"The various sums of money alleged to have been recovered from me were said to be in the social media in the early hours of Saturday, 8th October, 2016 when the invaders were yet to complete their search," he said.
He stated this in a letter he wrote to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed.
The judge said the monies that were found in his house were about N400,000, and not the huge local and foreign currencies reportedly recovered from him during the DSS invasion of October 7 and 8.
Justice Ngwuta attributed his plight to former Rivers State Governor and Minister of Transport, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, who allegedly solicited his assistance to nullify Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose's election in favour of Kayode Fayemi who lost in the poll.
The letter reads in part: "One of them saw the sum of N40,000 and one thousand naira note in one of the drawers. He was excited and called their lead who saw the money and said: "This is not the kind of money we came to pick".
"After many hours they came down to the sitting room downstairs and told me they were going to bring down the bags.
"I was speechless when I saw them bringing out huge bundles of different currencies from the bags that had contained only magazines, papers and old clothes and some were empty. Some were contained in multi coloured plastic bags which they tore and discarded. They put the money in different bags and brief cases and then proceeded to count a large amount of N5, N10, N20 and N50 notes which was the change I returned each time I went to shop over the years. They kept waking me up to ask how I came about the small denomination of Naira notes. No one asked me any question about the huge sums of money they put in the bags.
"One of them came to where I was lying down and ordered me to sit up. One of the gunmen who stood a few feet from me came and stood next to me with his gun drawn. I was ordered to sign a paper which they said contained a list of what they were taking away. Confronted with the life threatening situation, I made an instant mental decision that it was better for me to comply with their orders and stay alive to tell my story rather than get shot and killed on the pretext that I attacked them or that I tried to escape.
"I signed the paper and wrote my name as ordered. No one told me what offence I was alleged to have committed. No one told me of any petition or allegation against me.
"The only bag that contained money was the small bag I locked with a padlock which I unlocked when ordered to do so. The bag contained the sum of $25,000, £10 and a brown envelope containing the sum of N710,000 which was a monthly allowance paid to me for September 2016. In the brief case, which I carry to my office daily, I had the sum of N300,000 and some loose change. The above are the only sums of money taken from me along with my phones, papers and other household items.
I do not know how they came about the huge sums of money I saw for the first time in my parlour on the early hours of Saturday, 8th October, 2016.
"The various sums of money alleged to have been recovered from me were said to be in the social media in the early hours of Saturday, 8th October, 2016 when the invaders were yet to complete their search," he said.
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