US visa ban on 7 Supreme Court justices still stands, says retiring Justice Abba-Aji

Justice Uwani Musa Abba-Aji, who has retired from the Supreme Court at 70, says the United States imposed a travel ban on all seven justices of a panel she sat on, and that the ban is still in force.

Speaking at her valedictory session in Abuja on Friday, she said one of the panel's judgments was "widely misinterpreted", and that this led to the restriction on every member of the panel. She described the inconvenience as "a price to pay to preserve the chastity of justice".

She did not say which case she meant. Several reports link it to the Supreme Court's January 2020 judgment that removed Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP as Imo State governor and declared Hope Uzodimma of the APC the winner, after votes from 388 polling units were added to the count. The ruling was heavily criticised at the time.

The US government has not commented. Visa decisions are normally kept confidential.

Abba-Aji, the first woman judge from Yobe State, also spoke about being questioned by the EFCC in 2016 over a petition she said she knew nothing about, before she was cleared. The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, said she was leaving the bench with an unblemished record.