Nigeria

Retired Supreme Court justice reveals how he escaped imprisonment

Tuesday, February 11, 2020 at 11:40 AM by Wale Akinola

- A retired justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Amiru Sanusi, has revealed what he experienced as a teenager

- Justice Sanusi said that he was accused of stealing his colleague's money when he was 13-years-old

- The retired justice said he narrowly escaped being imprisoned by the native court judge

A retired judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Amiru Sanusi, has recounted how he narrowly escaped imprisonment and death.

The Nation reports that the retired judge took a retrospective look at his journey through life as a justice of the apex court.

Legit.ng gathered that Justice Sanusi, whom a valedictory court session held in his honour on February 3, following his retirement from the Supreme Court, recalled how he narrowly escaped being imprisoned at age 13 and how providence saved him from being assassinated while serving as a high court judge.

He recalled that he was conscripted 10 days after his father’s death, to serve as census enumerator with another young boy, whom he shared accommodation with within the Dutsi district of the state.

Read also

With my HND I became a pilot, do not let BSC-HND bias stop you - Man advises graduates

Justice Sanusi said while he and the young boy were strolling around the community to familiarise themselves with their new environment, his colleague misplaced the £3 allowance paid to each of them.

He said although he volunteered to share his £3 with his colleague, he was later arrested and accused of stealing his colleague’s money.

Drama as retired Supreme Court justice reveals how he escaped imprisonment — Retired Justice Amiru Sanusi
Source: UGC

Justice Sanusi said: “Later in the night a native authority policeman was sent to our accommodation and he started calling my name. I woke up and identified myself, he then instructed me to follow him along with my bag to the Alkali’s house.

“On reaching the house, the judge ordered the policeman to search me and my bag and insisted that I should bring out my colleague’s money.

“I told him that I did not take his money and that what I had with me was only my own stipend, which I was paid that afternoon. They counted it, but the Alkali (native court judge) insisted that I was the one who stole the money.

Read also

Meet Nigerian federal lawmaker who has 27 children from 4 wives and still counting

Justice Sanusi said the Alkali sent the policeman to go and call the prison warder and ordered that he should be taken to prison thinking that he would confess to having stolen the money.

He said: “Having observed earlier the nature of the prison lock-up in the evening when going to the town square, I burst into tears.

“As God would have it, just when I was about to be taken to the lock-up, a small girl of about four years old, ran out from the AlkalI’s house and said in Hausa language: Baba an gane kudin kurma ne, ya tsinta a bakin rijiya ka gansu nan a fankun ashana.’ Meaning: ‘Daddy, the money has been recovered, look at it here in the matchbox. It was the deaf who picked this money at the well.

“The native court judge and everybody around was perturbed to hear that. The said kurma or deaf was the house boy of the judge, who used to fetch water for the family and he was the one who told the wife that he picked the money at the well.