The embattled Chief Jusitce of
Nigeria, CJN, Justice Waler Onnoghen has been asked to honourably take the exit
door before it is too late.
Recall that the Federal
Government had ordered Justice Onnoghen to immediately vacate his office.
The Federal Government, among
others, is accusing Nigeria’s Head of the Judiciary of refusal to declare his
assets in breach of the provision of the Code of Conduct Bureau Act.
He was billed to appear before a
Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, on Monday but failed to show up.
Speaking on the development, the
Coalition for Change in Nigeria, said from its finding, contrary to the
political, ethnic and religious coloration it was being given, the trial of
Justice Onnoghen was not about President Muhammadu Buhari or the All
Progressives Congress (APC).
President of the coalition,
Patriot Sabo Odeh, who addressed a press conference on Wednesday, called on the
CJN to take the path of honour by resigning his appointment and consequently
vacate his office to face trial.
Full text of his speech below:
“Nigerians have again been
subjected to a spectacle of shame with the ongoing but needless controversy
over the arraignment of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen,
before the Code of Conduct Tribunal over his alleged failure to properly
declare his assets and operating foreign domiciliary bank accounts. We call the
controversy a shame because it has exposed the sham in the constant agitation
for a paradigm shift that some of our compatriots put up for show.
We have noted that the matter,
which is glaringly an open and close case, since flagrant violation of the
Constitution and legislation emanating from it have been established against
Justice Onnoghen. But in an atmosphere that has been hijacked by a feral
opposition it is not surprising that the case has been turned on its head and
given all manners of colourations, all with the sole aim of allowing another
person that has abused his position of trust to escape repercussions.
In the past few days, we have
seen the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) issuing statements and threats that
have only gone to confirm that the embattled Chief Justice is a closet member
of the party.
The party has issued several
threats and continued to reiterate them such that with the benefit of hindsight
there is now substance to the claims previously made by some groups and persons
that the PDP, certain of a resounding trouncing and defeat at the polls, has
compromised the judiciary in order to fraudulently take over the government of
the country through frivolous court ruling, particularly the position of the
President. It has therefore wrongly concluded that Justice Onnoghen is being
tried after his secret deal with the PDP was found out. In street parlance, such
behaviour is greeted with the exclamation of “guilty conscience”.
We have since found out that the
huge crowd of lawyers, 30 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) and more than 100
junior lawyers, that turned up to represent the Chief Justice were retained by
members of the PDP. Many of these PDP members that hired the lawyers for
Justice Onnoghen are candidates in the forthcoming elections and will likely
have post-election litigations that will proceed from Elections Tribunals to
the Supreme Court. This has further exposed His Lordship to conflict of
interest, which he seems unable to resist.
The governors of five south-south
states, with the exclusion of Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo state, elevated
themselves above the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by
directing the Chief Justice not to keep his appointment with the Code of Conduct
Tribunal.
It is troubling that Justice
Onnoghen deferred to the directive of the five governors thereby placing them
above the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which established
the Code of Conduct Tribunal and empowered it to summon public office holders
that are deemed to have cases to answer before it. Without prejudice to the
eventual outcome of the case filed before the Tribunal, the fact that His
Lordship would rather toe the line ruled by regional governors to violate the Constitution
being the Chief Interpreter of the Law has proven that he has no business
occupying his current post.
It is most nauseating that among
those that have been hired to help Justice Onnoghen evade the law are Niger
Delta militants.
The militants have threatened to
resume hostilities against the Nigerian state should the Code of Conduct
Tribunal go ahead with the trial. Even if he was constrained to be unable to
distance himself from the PDP, to the extent that the Chief Justice has refused
to reject the support offered by the militants, we see their threats on several
levels. The first is that the threats prove that His Lordship has all along
been the Chief Justice of the Niger Delta and not that of Nigeria, which makes
his continued parade as CJN untenable even if there was no charge against
before the tribunal.
Secondly is the absurdity of the
Chief Justice accepting the support of a group whose members are certain to
appeal the sentences for their crimes against Nigeria before the Supreme Court;
the support they have given him today has bought them influence with the Court
in future. Additionally, any patriotic Nigerian should condemn groups that
attempt to get their way by threat of violence as the militants have done by
threatening to resume attacks against Nigeria.
The only honourable thing Justice
Onnoghen has done in the entire saga was to set the record straight by
disproving the fake news deployed by one Femi Fani-Kayode and one Yinka
Odumakin to the effect that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
has surrounded his residence. The fact that the Chief Justice disprove the fake
news is an indication that he could have also disowned the support from the
Niger Delta militants and also disregard the directive from the south-south governors
if he had wished to. We see him allowing this controversy to fester because he
views it as an escape route from facing the consequences for his breach of the
law.
The Coalition for Change in
Nigeria, from the foregoing, is convinced that contrary to the political,
ethnic and religious coloration it is being given, the trial of Justice
Onnoghen is not about President Muhammadu Buhari or the All Progressives
Congress (APC). It is about embracing the new Nigeria where there are no
different set of laws for Nigerians, a country where judiciary plays its role
for the sustenance of our democracy because those presiding over its affairs
place themselves above board.
Justice Onnoghen may wish to
place a call to the Deputy Chief Justice of Kenya, Justice Philomena Mwilu, who
has not only been arraigned and being tried for corruption, but was arrested
prior to being charged. A former Chief Justice of Nepal, Justice Gopal
Parajuli, is another buddy that the Chief of Justice of Nigeria may want to
interact with to find out how false declaration could hurt careers as he was
sacked for false age declaration.
We envisage that the recalcitrant
disposition not to appear before the Code of Conduct Tribunal has already hurt
the stability of the country because Justice Onnoghen’s behaviour and
utterances of those speaking on his behalf would be interpreted as a Supreme
Court pronouncement. The implication of this is that persons to be arraigned
before the courts will simply cite his refusal to appear before the Code of Conduct
Tribunal as justification for them not to be expected to do same.
In recent days, the Chief
Justice’s case has been politicised, made to appear like ethnic persecution,
has been a source of terror threat against Nigeria and the key personae has encouraged
this behaviour with his silence. The preservation of Nigeria is at the core of
expectations from the judiciary and if the number one person in the judiciary
has shown that he is not interested in the oneness and the harmonious existence
of the country there is no need to continue trusting his leadership of that arm
of government.
He has also compounded whatever
allegations there are against him before the Code of Conduct Tribunal by
accepting representation from lawyers paid for by chieftains of PDP, who will
be litigants before the Supreme Court in a matter of weeks. This is a clear
case of conflict of interest. His conflict of interest has been further
compounded with the acceptance of support from militants that could be
appealing convictions before his court.
The judiciary has been
compromised by someone with moral burdens of this magnitude being in charge. We
therefore boldly declare that the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter
Onnoghen has lost the moral standing to continue to remain in that capacity.
Justice Onnoghen should therefore honourably resign before it is too late for
what would left once honour has deserted him is shame.”
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