The crisis rocking Osun judiciary has taken a new dimension as key leaders of the judicial sector in Abuja are reported to have advised the embattled Chief Judge, Justice Adepele Ojo to resign given the weighty allegations against her from judicial workers.
Our team can exclusively report that supporters of the CJ within the federal circle met in Abuja on Friday evening and reviewed the ongoing crisis with a conclusion that the safest option is for her to resign instead of facing a full trial before the NJC.
A top source revealed that the meeting which had in attendance a very top APC stalwart from Osun state arrived at the above conclusion after the failed bid to return the diverted 57 months salaries of judicial workers who petitioned the NJC.
It was alleged that the CJ, using some of his cronies, had conveyed a meeting with the leadership of the state judicial workers union on Friday morning with a promise to resolve the issue of diverted salaries.
As soon as the matter was raised at the meeting, it was gathered that the state chairman of JUSUN informed the meeting that the state government had paid the affected workers on humanitarian grounds pending the outcome of NJC investigations.
The revelation by the workers’ union immediately blocked what was meant to remove a major allegation against the CJ. The goal was to secretly return the diverted salaries to the affected workers and then pressure the union and the workers to withdraw the petitions before NJC.
The fact that the public now knows that the salaries of judicial workers were indeed diverted for 57 months was considered by the Abuja meeting as a major blow to the efforts to save the CJ.
The Asokoro gathering was also reportedly worried that the CJ could not defend or disprove other serious allegations like alleged diversion of judgment fund, withholding of millions of naira belonging to a fellow judge, shady e-affidavits consultancy, and a host of other infractions bordering on corruption and abuse of office.
A source at the meeting hinted further that those in attendance were of the view that the CJ cannot survive any trial by NJC, hence the suggestion for soft landing through resignation from office.
Another suggestion that pressure be put on NJC to dismiss the petition was rejected by most members because of two reasons namely the petitioners are judicial workers and secondly evidence against the CJ borders on documents corruption and abuse of office
“She is our person but the case at hand is bad. We are looking for a soft landing. Further meetings will be held during the week”, the source confided to our reporter.
