Ikenga Ugochinyere, spokesperson of the Coalition of United Political Parties alleges the federal government plans to forge Walter Onnoghen, suspended chief justice of Nigeria’s signature and force him to resign at gunpoint

THE Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, has alleged that the federal government was plotting to forge fake signature and resignation letter of the suspended Justice Walter Onnoghen, chief justice of Nigeria, CJN.

Ikenga Ugochinyere, spokesperson of the CUPP, issued a statement on Wednesday stating that the coalition “learnt that the Presidency is asking that he resigns immediately or he is arrested ahead of the election.”

According to him, the opposition is armed with evidence of a failed attempt around 11pm Tuesday night to force the CJN to sign a draft resignation letter taken to him by a former Attorney-General Federation.

Part of the statement reads: “The Senior Advocate of Nigeria was sent to threaten the CJN to avert a planned arrest and humiliation by signing his resignation as the President has directed that he must step down before the Saturday election for the acting CJN, Tanko Mohammed, to have his illegal appointments regularised before Saturday election.

“We have evidence of the meeting held at the Udi Hills luxury mansion at Aso Drive belonging to the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, which he bought after the Abacha loot fraud.

”We further learnt that the meeting was attended by the acting NJC chairman, Justice Abdullahi Rtd , NJC Executive Secretary Gambo Saleh , and Bayo Ojo. “At the meeting, the strategy to force Justice Onnoghen to resign as directed by the Presidency was discussed starting with the emissary sent to the CJN by 11pm yesterday night to sign the draft resignation letter.

“The meeting has also resolved to forge the signature of the CJN and issue out a fake resignation letter for him and arrest him immediately.

“The plan is to keep him incommunicado to make it impossible for anybody to reach him to confirm if he was the one who signed it. Presidency plans to force Onnoghen to resign at gunpoint.”

CUPP alleges: “The Presidency has also directed the Chairman of the CCT, Danladi Umar, to issue a bench warrant against the CJN to pave way for the police to arrest him.

“The EFCC has also been directed to abandon the petition he sent to NJC and move in to arrest the CJN if he fails to resign today. The Presidency is desperate after realising that it has misfired in the method adopted in the offensive against the CJN and now feels the only way to come out of the log jam is to force the CJN to resign so that it can score a cheap point before the Saturday election and also perfect the swearing in of the impostor acting CJN,” the statement said.

It added that “The fear that their post 2019 litigation moves will fail over the constitutional log jam on who is the head of the court is behind the reason the President wants the CJN to step down now “We therefore call on members of the public and the media to go and keep vigil at CJN house to avoid any harm being done to him.”
– Feb. 13, 2019 @ 16:25 GMT |