The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) has traced a deposit of $30,000 by Joe Agi, a senior
advocate, into the bank account of Walter Onnoghen, the embattled chief justice
of Nigeria (CJN).
It has emerged that Onnoghen also
failed to disclose that he has an account at Heritage Bank in his asset
declaration form — another violation of the code of conduct law.
TheCable reports that .Agi is one of the senior
advocates defending Onnoghen in his asset declaration case before the Code of
Conduct Tribunal (CCT).
Agi
was also the guarantor when the justice opened the account at Standard
Chartered Bank.
The fresh allegations form part
of the report sent by the EFCC to the National Judicial Council (NJC) for
disciplinary action to be taken against Onnoghen, who has been suspended as CJN
by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari said he was acting based
on an order issued by the CCT, although observers have accused him of not
following due process in his action.
Onnoghen is currently being tried
by the CCT over allegations of non-declaration of some of his assets, although
he said it was an oversight.
He also said he made money from
agriculture and forex investments.
NJC sources revealed that
the $30,000 deposit was made sometime in 2009 while a series of “suspicious
payments” were also traced to Onnoghen’s accounts between 2011 and 2013 during
elections petition cases.
In a previous case, which was
eventually dismissed, Agi’s firm, Messrs Joe Odey Agi, reportedly paid a total
of N160 million to the account of
Adeniyi Adetokunbo Ademola, a justice of the federal high court.
The case filed against him for
“gratification” was dismissed on technical grounds, although many lawyers
argued that it was a professional misconduct which should have been punished by
the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee.
Efforts to reach Agi
were unsuccessful as his phone rang out. He has also not responded to text
messages.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com