Petition Alleges Lagos High Court Judge Attacked Clerk, Drew Blood

Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia

Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia sits at the Federal High Court in Lagos, armed with the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

But she is also armed with a different set of laws, one that permits her to be accuser, judge, jury and executioner.  They may be called The Laws of Justice Rita, a point she proved last month as she brutally attacked a clerical officer attached to her office.

The incident was well known to the media, but lacking concrete evidence, nobody could report it. Now the Nigeria media is awash with the story, as a formal petition has been filed with the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, detailing how the incident occurred.

The name of the victim is Israel Okodugha, and the petition was filed by his father, S.O. Okodugha.

On that fateful day, and unknowing he was about to become a painful public demonstration of The Laws of Rita, he went to Ofili-Ajumogobia's chambers at about 4:15p.m. to inform her that he wished to accompany the staff bus home since the money on him was insufficient to carry him to his home that evening by public transport.

"In the presence of female students, his lordship got up from the seat, went to Israel,  grabbed his ears with her nails, pulled on them, in the process, inflicted pains on the ears and wound on the back of his left ear,” Okodugha’s complaint, dated June 11, said.  “He bled on the ear to the house that night. We have to take him to a nearby pharmacy to give him analgesics after washing the wound with antiseptics."

Continuing, Okodugha alleged a different dimension to the respected judge: "Before the incident, our son Israel, has been one of the staff his lordship uses as house keeper to scrub the toilet, wash the clothes and sweep and clean the house during official hours and even on weekends under instructions until Israel told his lordship that he had studies he had to attend on weekends."

The petition, a copy of which was obtained by Daily Independent on Tuesday, was copied the most senior judge in the Lagos division of Federal High Court, Justice James Tsoho and both the Chief Registrar and Deputy Chief Registrar in charge of Administration at Lagos division of the court.

So far, no word has been heard from Justice Auta about the complaint.