ODILI: Court orders Malami to sanction lawyer

Justice Inyang Eden Ekwo has ordered Justice Minister Abubakar Malami to sanction Jimoh Abdulkadir Adamu for unprofessional conduct.

In a ruling on Tuesday at the Federal High Court, Abuja, Ekwo said the Nigeria Immigration Service lawyer refused to obey a court order asking the NIS to deposit with the court registrar former Gov Peter Odili travel documents the service withheld.

The justice equally ordered Adamu to appear in January to show cause why further the court should not pile on further sanction o him.

Odili’s lawyer, Ifedayo Adedipe, complained of Adamu’s deliberate disrespect to the lawful order of the court.

Adedipe urged the court to penalise Adamu, who has been representing the service and its director-general, for disrespecting the court and treating it with contempt.

Adamu has failed to obey a subsisting order to deposit the travel documents with the Registrar of the court pending the hearing of his motion for stay of execution.

The NIS has not been showing up in court either, despite being served with a hearing notice in relation to his pending motion.

Odili, the husband of Spreme Court Justice Mary Odili, is on the radar of the EFCC probing afresh a multi-billion-dollar corruption allegation against which the former governor obtained a perpetual injunction over a decade ago.

The commission put a no-fly stamp on Odili, leading to the NIS seizure of his travel documents in June when he wanted to travel out.