The trial of Justice Adeniyi Ademola took a little twist on Tuesday when a prosecution witness told the court that President Muhammadu Buhari had given a gift of N500,000 to the accused person while he was still in charge of the alleged certificate forgery case brought against Buhari by Nnamdi Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe.

The witness, Babatunde Adepoju, an operative of the Department of State Services, DSS, told the court that counsel to President Buhari, Kola Adewoyin, gave Justice Ademola the monetary gift during the wedding of one of the Judge’s daughters.

While being  cross examined, Adepoju, noted that it would be speculative to conclude that the money was given to the Justice in order to influence the forgery case.

“The lawyer gave Justice Ademola N500,000. In my opinion, it would be speculative to say the gift by President Buhari’s lawyer was a bribe to Justice Ademola. It is not a bribe,” he said

Recall that Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe, an Abuja-based lawyer, had filed a suit challenging the authenticity of President Buhari’s WAEC result.

The lawyer had maintained that the President did not meet the educational requirement to contest for the highest office in Nigeria, accusing Buhari of lying about sitting for the Cambridge West African School Certificate, WASC, in 1961.

President Buhari had hired 13 Senior Advocates of Nigeria as well as 10 other lawyers to defend him in the case.

Apart from Adewoyin, the other lawyers in the case were Wole Olanipekun, Lateef Fagbemi, Akin Olujinmi, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, Kola Awodein, Taiwo Osipitan, Charles Edosomwan, Emeka Ngige, Femi Atoyebi, Femi Falana, Funke Aboyade, H.O. Afolabi, and Muiz Banire.

Justice Ademola is one of the judges who was arrested by the DSS after their houses were raided and thoroughly searched in October 2016.

He is currently standing trial alongside his wife, Olubowale, and Joe Agi, a senior advocate of Nigeria on allegations accepting gratifications in order to pervert Justice.