Corruption Charge: Chief Accountant Discloses Judge’s Salary Details

A Chief Accountant at the Federal High Court, Lagos, Mr Awoyemi Kazeem, last Friday revealed at an Ikeja High Court  the salaries and allowances of Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia at her ongoing trial for corruption and obstruction of justice.
The Tide reports that Kazeem, is the 11th prosecution witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to testify against Ofili-Ajumogobia of the Federal High Court, Lagos.
Kazeem, in his evidence revealed that Ofili-Ajumogobia initially received a salary of N193,000 in 2004  on appointment as a judge which was increased to approximately N528,621 in 2008.
While being led in evidence by Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, the prosecution counsel for the EFCC, Kazeem said: “I know Hon. Ofili-Ajumogobia very well, she is a honourable judge of the Federal High Court and she has been in the service of the court since 2004.
“In the course of her job, we have been paying her statutory allowances as sent to us by the National Judicial Commission (NJC) as well as other allowances as a judge of the Federal High Court.
“We forwarded to the EFCC documents containing details of her salary and allowances from the year 2004 to June 2017.
“From year 2004 to 2017, she earned a salary of N48.6 million and allowances of 74. 8 million.
“I will like to state that records of her allowances from 2004 to 2008 as well as her annual salary for 2008 could not be found due to the movement of the court from Lagos to Abuja in 2017.
“The total records of salary we have here is N123 million and this excludes the salaries that we could not present in court at the moment,” he told the court.
Kazeem, who looked through the salary records of the judge during his testimony noted that some deposits in the judge’s salary account were not from the Federal High Court.
“The deposit of N1.8 million on June 15, 2004 from the records I have here are not from the Federal High Court.
“Another cash deposit of N1.8 million on August 11, 2005 is not from the Federal High Court the records available to me, a N1 million Zenith Bank cheque deposit on December 14, 2008 is not from the Federal High Court,” he said.
The accountant told the court that judges were allowed annual foreign trips for either medical checkup or training and were given 6,900 dollars annually either for airfare or estacode.
“The $6,900 was paid in cash to the judges, I, however, did not check if my Lady took advantage of it because it is not reflected in our records,” Kazeem said.
While being cross-examined by Mr Robert Clarke, counsel to Ofili-Ajumogobia, Kazeem admitted that his knowledge of the judge was restricted to her financial records and he was not aware of the purpose of the deposits which were not from the Federal High Court.
Clarke also noted that  before becoming a judge, Ofili-Ajumogobia was a lawyer with a thriving practice and had a ‘pedigree’ by virtue of her father being a retired High Court judge.
made with her lawyer present,” Abdullahi said.
NAN reports that Ofili-Ajumogobia is standing trial alongside Mr Godwin Obla, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and former prosecutor of the EFCC.
Both have been jointly charged with two counts of perverting the course of justice.
Obla is facing an additional two counts of offering gratification in the sum of N5 million to Ofili-Ajumogobia, a public official while serving as a judge.
Ofili-Ajumogobia faces a 26-count charge bordering on unlawful enrichment, taking property by a public officer, corruption, forgery and giving false information to an official of the EFCC.
Both denied all the charges.
Justice Hakeem Oshodi adjourned the case until Oct. 27 for continuation of trial.