The Nigerian Bar Association has
reacted to the charges filed by President Muhammadu Buhari’s government against
the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen.
The Federal Government will on
Monday, January 14, 2019, arraign the CJN before the Justice Danladi Yakubu-led
Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) in Abuja on charges of failures to declare his
assets as required by law and for operating Bank Domiciliary Foreign Currency
Accounts.
The charges against Justice
Onnoghen were filed and served on him on Friday at his official residence in
Abuja preparatory to his appearance at the tribunal.
Reacting, NBA in a statement
signed by its General Secretary Jonathan Gudu Taidi described the move against
Onnoghen as an assault, intimidation and desecration of the judiciary, which
must stop.
The statement read in part:
“Assault, Intimidation and Desecration of the Judiciary Must Stop
1. Nigerians have witnessed again
the targeted assault of the judiciary by agents of the Federal Government of
Nigeria (“FGN”) epitomized by today’s media trial of the Chief Justice of
Nigeria, Honorable Mr Justice Walter S N Onnoghen, GCON (“CJN”). According to
media reports which have now been validated by the Statement of the Code of
Conduct Tribunal (“CCT”) that was released today an application was “filed by
the Code of Conduct Bureau to the CCT Chairman yesterday for the trial to
commence against the Chief Justice of Nigeria on six count charges” and that
the CCT “will commence the trial on Monday, 14th January 2019”. The Nigerian
Bar Association unequivocally condemns this assault, intimidation and
desecration of the Judiciary by FGN agencies and demands that it be stopped
immediately.
2. In Nganjiwa v Federal Republic
of Nigeria (2017) LPELR-43391(CA), the Court of Appeal made it very clear that
any misconduct attached to the office and functions of a judicial officer must
first be reported to and handled by the National Judicial Council (“NJC”)
pursuant to the provisions of our laws. Only after the NJC has pronounced
against such judicial officer can the prosecuting agencies of the Federal
Government proceed against him. As the Court pointed out, these requirements of
the law are anchored on the overriding principles of separation of powers
between the executive, the judiciary and the legislature and on the need to
preserve, promote and protect the independence of the judiciary. Our respective
liberties and the rule of law are best protected and preserved if the judiciary
remains independent and shielded from intimidation and assault by the other
arms of the government.
3. In Nganjiwa v FRN (supra), the
Court of Appeal made reference to Rule 3 of the Revised Code of Conduct for
Judicial Officers of February 2016 (“Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers”)and
held that the said Rule 3 “makes provision in relation to fidelity to the
Constitution and the Law”. The provisions in regard to assets declaration as
they apply to all public officers including the CJN are contained in both the
Constitution and the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act 1991, the enabling
law that establishes both the Code of Conduct Bureau (“CCB”) and the CCT. The
fidelity which judicial officers therefore owe “to the Constitution and the
Law” pursuant to Rule 3 of the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers
encompasses compliance with the provisions relating to assets declarations as
contained in the Constitution and the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act.
Any infraction in that regard by a judicial officer, as the Court of Appeal
rightly held, constitutes a misconduct by the judicial officer and becomes the
subject matter for discipline by the NJC as a condition precedent to any
possible prosecution of the judicial officer by any of the FGN’s prosecuting
agencies.
4. Why has FGN decided to embark
on this anomalous course of charging the CJN before the CCT without first
presenting whatever facts it purportedly has against His Lordship to the NJC
for its deliberation and determination? The Petition that triggered the CCB
action was on its face received by the Bureau on 09 January 2019 and the Charge
was promptly drafted and is dated the following day, 10 January 2019 – giving
the CCB a record 24 hours for completion of its investigation and the drafting
of the said Charge and ancillary processes! If one contemplates the fact that
the CCT arraignment is scheduled to take place on 14 January 2019, we have in
total a record number of 3 (three) working days between the receipt and
processing of the petition, investigation, preparation of Charge and ancillary
processes and the arraignment! Such unprecedented speed and efficiency in
Nigeria’s criminal justice administration! It is clear, given the rush with
which this matter was conducted by the CCB, that the NJC was not privy to it
and did not conduct its mandatorily required disciplinary processes prior to
the filing of the Charge before the CCT.
5. We still wonder why the FGN
choose to deviate from the laid down and explicit provisions of the law as
expounded in Nganjiwa v FRN (supra). Could it be that it was misadvised? Or is
this a naked show of power and force by agencies of the FGN? And why embark on
the media trial of the CJN? This, unfortunately, is a predilection of the FGN’s
prosecuting agencies with the possible exception of the Federal Ministry of
Justice. As the NBA pointed out in its International Anti-Corruption Day
Statement that was issued on 09 December 2018 “media trial of persons charged
with corrupt practices . . . amount to corruption itself. Indeed, those
orchestrated media trials degrade and corrupt the justice administration system
quite apart from the incalculable (but obviously intended) damage that it does
to persons who may ultimately be discharged and acquitted. In point of fact, it
is corrupt practice to use as license or hide under the cover of the fight
against corruption to recklessly destroy the names, characters and reputations
of persons who have not been found guilty of corrupt practices by competent
courts and who may ultimately be pronounced innocent of such charges.” These
media trials must, alongside the on-going desecration and assault of the
judiciary, cease forthwith.”
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But media trial is the stock in trade of the PMB led government. Nigerians be wise and vote him out.
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