Retiring Supreme Court justice recalls EFCC questioning and US travel ban
- Justice Uwani Musa Abba-Aji spoke at a valedictory session marking her retirement from the Supreme Court.
- She said she was questioned repeatedly by the EFCC in Lagos over corruption allegations and later cleared.
- She also said a US travel ban on her and other panel members still stands over a judgment.
A retiring Justice of the Supreme Court, Uwani Musa Abba-Aji, has described how corruption allegations she said she knew nothing about turned her into a frequent visitor at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) office in Lagos.
She spoke on Friday at a valedictory court session held in her honour at the Supreme Court in Abuja, as she bowed out of the bench.
According to her account, the matter began in 2016 while she was attending a programme in Washington DC. She said she got a call from the then President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa (retired), who told her a petition from the EFCC had reached her through the office of the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed.
She was asked to travel to Lagos to answer questions. Abba-Aji said she only understood how serious it was once the trips to the EFCC office became routine.
Cleared, but unable to speak
The justice said the investigations ended with her being cleared of every allegation. Even so, she described the period as chaotic and painful, because the conventions of her office stopped her from defending herself in public.
She said she could only turn to prayer, and that the clearance later paved the way for her elevation to the Supreme Court.
Abba-Aji also raised a separate matter: a travel ban to the United States imposed on her and other members of a Supreme Court panel she served on. She said the ban followed a judgment that was widely misunderstood, and that it remains in force.
She called the restriction a small price to pay for protecting the integrity of the judiciary.
In her remarks, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, said some judicial careers cannot be measured only by the offices held or the years served. She urged the retiring justice to keep teaching and mentoring younger lawyers.
Born in Gashua, Yobe State, on November 7, 1956, Abba-Aji joined the judicial service in Borno State as far back as 1973, starting in administrative roles. She studied law at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1981.
Her retirement removes one more experienced hand from the apex court at a time when Nigerians are watching the judiciary closely, particularly over how corruption cases involving powerful people are handled.
