Ahmed Mohammed, a judge of the federal high court in Abuja, has withdrawn himself from the case of Omoyele Sowore, the convener of RevolutionNow Movement.
The Herald gathered that Mohammed made this decision at the hearing of Sowore’s application for the enforcement of his rights on Monday, December 23.
The judge said he had been accused of receiving a bribe in a certain matter by Sahara Reporters, an online platform owned by the defendant, adding that the allegation came up again in June 2019.
He said: “When the registrar called me and said this file was assigned to me and she named the parties, I asked if the chief judge was around but he already travelled for Christmas.
“My conscience is telling me I should not take the matter but subject to what you would say or think. My grounds is nothing other than the applicant is the publisher of Sahara Reporters. Sometime in 2016, the same outlet accused me of taking money in a matter to compromise the course of justice and I returned the case file to the then CJ.”
Mohammed said the case file was later returned to him after the intervention of Rotimi Jacobs and J.B Daudu, both senior advocates of Nigeria (SAN) involved in the matter.
According to him, “Again, this year, around June, the same paper accused me of taking money in the same case. so, I had to hands off again and it was reassigned to Honourable Justice Abang. The case may go either way.
“It may succeed, it may fail. If my orders are not favourable to him, it would be seen as vengeful, or, while proceedings are ongoing, applicants will be apprehensive about what judgment I would give.”
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