Politics
Justice Walter Onnoghen, the chief justice of Nigeria, seems to have been demystified by the allegations of impropriety level against him by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, which seeks to remove him from office in an inglorious manner; but whether the support of lawyers being received by him will save him is another matter
By Olu Ojewale
Nobody seemed to have seen it coming. But the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in the past few days rocked the polity and the Nigerian Judiciary with some allegations against Justice Walter Onnoghen, the chief justice of Nigeria, for alleged non-compliance with the assets declaration law. On Monday, January 14, the charges against the CJN were tabled before the Code Conduct Tribunal, alleging that the CJN did not declare his assets as required by the law.
At the end of the day’s proceedings, Danladi Umar, chairman of the three-man tribunal adjourned the matter to Tuesday, January 22. According to Umar, the tribunal will hear Onnoghen’s motion challenging the jurisdiction of the tribunal at the next proceedings.
The tribunal adjourned the case after Aliyu Umar, SAN, the lead prosecuting counsel, conceded that the CJN was improperly served with the charges and the summons. He agreed that Onnoghen was not personally served with the charges and the court’s summons as required by the law. He, therefore, requested the CCT to direct a fresh service on the CJN.
Interestingly, Onnoghen himself was absent from the Monday’s proceedings. When asked why the CJN was not in court, Wole Olanipekun, SAN, who led about 95 lawyers including 46 SANs, to defend Onnoghen, said the CJN needed not to be present, having filed a motion to challenge the tribunal’s jurisdiction. Olanipekun said he and other defence lawyers only appeared in court in protest against the jurisdiction of the tribunal.
Besides, he said that, from the account given by the court official earlier in the proceedings, the CJN was not served with the charges and summons personally, but through his aide. The counsel insisted that the law requires that the defendant be served personally.
However, Aliyu Umar, the prosecuting counsel, said the law only requires the defendant to be aware of the pending charges, and that it was the CJN’s choice to ask his aide to receive the charges and summons on his behalf.
Invariably, after about 45 minutes of arguments, the prosecuting counsel admitted that the service of the charges and the summons ought to have been personally served on Onnoghen. He said: “We agree that that the service should be properly done. The processes should be served personally on him.
“If, after the service is done, and the defendant is not present, we can then argue whether or not he needs to be present on the grounds that he has filed a motion challenging the jurisdiction of the court.”
That notwithstanding, a large number of Nigerian lawyers appear to be against the charges preferred against the CJN. A good number of them, who have been speaking or writing to the press, see the development as an assault against the Nigerian judiciary by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
Writing under the headline, “Assault, Intimidation and Desecration of the Judiciary Must Stop,” Paul Usoro, SAN, president of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, said what Nigerians are witnessing is the targeted assault by the federal government agents.
“The Nigerian Bar Association unequivocally condemns this assault, intimidation and desecration of the Judiciary by FGN agencies and demands that it be stopped immediately,” Usoro’s statement said.
The NBA president, who himself is being tried by the federal government on allegation of corruption, said under the law and the principle of separation of power, the federal government should have reported the case to the National Judicial Council, NJC, who will sanction the CJN if found wanting. He argued: “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.”
Besides, he pointed out that under the Constitution and the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, any infraction relating to declaration of asset by a judicial officer constitutes a misconduct by the judicial officer and becomes the subject matter for discipline by the NJC before any possible prosecution of the judicial officer by any of the FGN’s prosecuting agencies.
Usoro said for the mere fact that the assault on the Judiciary is taking place barely four weeks before elections, the federal government will find it difficult “to convince any reasonable person that its assault against the CJN and by extension the judiciary is not aimed at emasculating that arm of the government and intimidating our judges ahead of the 2019 National Elections.”
Taking a similar analytical look at the case, Mike Ozehome, SAN, in his press statement, said Nigerians must rise up to defend democracy.
Ozekhome, who sounded as if not surprised by the Buhari administration’s action against the CJN, pointed at thousands of legitimate petitions that had been written to the administration since its inception. He recalled the ones against Tukur Buratai, the chief of Army Staff, on discovery of his alleged Dubai properties; the petitions written against Abba Kyari, the chief of Staff to the president after the MTN 500 million bribe scandal; petitions written against Abubakar Malami, the attorney-general, alleging that he secretly met with and imported Abudulrasheed Maina from Dubai, and petitions for the arrest and prosecution of Babachir Lawal, a former secretary to the federal, for allegedly stealing millions for displaced Boko Haram victims, among others. He said all the petitions fell on the president’s deaf ears. “But it took under 24 hours for a suspect petition by Buhari’s henchman to embarrass Nigeria’s judicial system days to the presidential elections,” Ozekhome charged.
In the same vein, he cited all the courts’ rulings for the release of Sambo Dasuki, a former security adviser, and Ibrahim el-Zakzaky and his wife, to be set freed and compensated, but justice was denied. He accused the president of leading the travesty of justice by standing boldly and unrepentantly in contempt of court on too many occasions.
He said: “By persecuting judges and now even the chief justice of the federation, the judiciary has been conscripted as a servant of the ruling party and can no longer independently function in service to the state.”
Nevertheless, he said Onnoghen invited the trouble on his head. “But then, dare I say, perhaps it serves Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen right. Why has he not loudly protested while he serves as Chief justice, with petitions to the National Assembly and press, against the abuse of power by the executive?
“Why did he not publicly consider resigning or resign in protest of all the subversions of justice by the Buhari administration which locked up, persecuted and selectively protected in violation of the law, at will? Did he think it will not one day touch him?
“They say, if you are silent when it gets to others, pray that others will not be silent when it gets to you. And the worst anarchical silence is that of those in power.”
That notwithstanding, he said Nigerians stand with Onnoghen. “We stand with all Nigerians, victims, all of us,” Ozekhome said.
In a similar condemnatory statement, the main opposition, the People Democratic Party, PDP, has accused the Presidency of plotting to destabilise and annex the Judiciary ahead of the general elections.
In a statement signed by Kola Ologbondiyan, the director, Media & Publicity, PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, the party alleged that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and cabal at the Buhari Presidency are hounding the CJN “seeking his removal so as to cause a constitutional crisis, instil fear in judicial officers and pave way for the foisting of a pliable CJN that will do their bidding on electoral matters.”
It warned that the current development against the CJN “is a clear recipe for anarchy and a huge crisis that is capable of fracturing our justice system and derail our democracy as it portends a prelude to a total clamp down on institutions of democracy and rule of law in our country.”
The PDP, therefore, enjoined Nigerians, the United Nations and all international bodies to unite in the defence of the nation’s democracy, especially at this very crucial time.
On his part, Uche Secondus, the national chairman of the PDP, alerted Nigerians and the comity of nations that the APC wants to destroy the Nigerian judiciary barely 30 days to the general elections in its “desperation to manipulate and thwart the will of Nigerians.”
Secondus, who led the PDP Presidential campaign train to Jos, Plateau state on Saturday, January 12, told his audience that the APC is afraid of an independent judiciary because of its agenda to rig the election.
In a message by Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate, said that the government’s move against Onnoghen shows the Buhari administration’s growing desperation.
He argued: “If Justice Walter Onnoghen is guilty of the charges about to be preferred against him, let his guilt be determined by a competent court of law and not by the Buhari administration. The executive cannot usurp the role of the judiciary. Nigeria is still a democracy and not a fascist dictatorship as President Buhari may wish.
“Any attempt to force Justice Walter Onnoghen to vacate his office, 4 weeks to an election for which the unpopular Buhari administration has shown every intention to manipulate, is a move pregnant with negative meaning.
“I see no reason whatsoever for the ongoing pressure by the Buhari government to force Justice Walter Onnoghen to vacate office when he has not been convicted for any offence.”
Consequently, he urged the president to respect the principle of separation of powers and abide by the rule of law on the matter and “stop any interference or pressure on Justice Walter Onnoghen or the judiciary and allow the law and the constitution take its full course.”
Similarly, John Nnia Nwodo, president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the umbrella organisation of Ndigbo, warned the federal government to stop heating up the polity by its needless action against the CJN.
Nwodo, in a statement that he personally signed, said that legal opinion did not support the action, following an extant Court Of Appeal decision which interprets the procedure for prosecuting judicial officers and, therefore, should not have been contemplated at all. He said: “The fact that the National Judicial Council has been ignored is not just illegal but suggests deliberate court shopping and a predetermined objective.”
Besides, he reasoned that the fact that one of the issues being canvassed by the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, before the CCT is for an order for the CJN to step aside from his post pending the conclusion of the trial in contravention of the normal procedure for his removal from office as provided by the law also showed the aim of the prosecution.
He, therefore, advised the federal government to stop heating polity, warning the consequence will not be good for the nation’s democracy.
On their part, the Niger Delta Militants vowed to shut down the country if the federal government should go ahead with the “harassment” of Onnoghen. In a statement issued on Sunday, January 13, the coalition of the agitators also warned all non indigenes who owned oil wells in the coastal area to prepare to vacate the zone, while asking all persons from the area working in the President Muhammadu Buhari government to “watch” their back.
The statement signed by John Dukku of the Niger Delta Watchdogs and Coalition of Niger Delta Agitators and a host of others noted that Buhari has never been disposed to the appointment of the CJN, saying it was why he delayed his appointment as the country’s chief law office after many months in acting capacity. The statement added that the CJN was suffering because he hails from the South-South minority zone.
According to the militants, the CJN is suffering just because he is from the minority Niger Delta region, and that the move is a ploy by the Presidency to forcefully remove Onnoghen from office and replace him with a Northerner.
The militants warned that they will vehemently resist any attempt to remove the CJN from office. “Therefore, we want to inform Nigerians and the International Community that any attempt for President Buhari to continue in office beyond May 2019, will be resisted by all means necessary. If they succeed in rigging election and bring back Buhari, then Nigeria should prepare to exist without the Niger Delta oil, Niger Delta will not be part of Nigeria anymore. The Northerners should also prepare to leave the Niger Delta if President Buhari continues beyond May 2019; we are prepared to strike once and for all and declare our Sovereign Niger Delta Republic.”
Besides, the group said that if the Presidency failed to reverse its harassment against the CJN, it would have no other option than to “mobilise all the Niger Delta fighters and commence serious actions that would shake the country and the whole world; we shall shut down all the oil wells in the Niger Delta.” That is, probably, one anarchy the government cannot afford to allow to happen.
That notwithstanding, Itse Sagay, SAN and the chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, said the planned prosecution of the CJN shows that no one is above the law.
The Law professor told a newspaper correspondent that although the prosecution of Onnoghen is saddening, it had shown that Nigeria is slowly becoming a nation of laws.
Sagay said: “I do not rejoice neither am I pleased that such high officials are being probed or investigated but it shows that in Nigeria, the law is working and that the rule of law operates and that no one is higher than the law.
“That is the good aspect of it. Otherwise, I am not happy about it but if the reason arises why they should be investigated or invited and they are invited, it shows that the Nigerian legal system is working and that the rule of law operates but if it is you or I, you know that automatically, we will be indicted; but when the bigger guns in the country, who have all the power are also being indicted, it means it is a good sign for the rule of law in Nigeria.”
When reminded of the fact that the CJN would be arraigned before Umar of the CCT, who has also been accused of corruption, Sagay said the federalgGovernment had no other option.
He said, “I see a point. It is a sad reflection on the state of corruption in Nigeria but I think at the end of the day, everybody will come to justice and we will have a clean slate. This is the best we can do now.”
In any case, a top notch politician said the reason for the CJN’s matter “is part of the media trial tactics, which the government has used so often to damage the reputation of people they know they have no real case against.
“But why the unseemly haste to remove Onnoghen? ..Petition dated 7th Jan,.. received 9th Jan,..charges filed 10th Jan, etc? It seems to me that this desperation has more to do with Rivers State, than prospective post-election litigation. The APC is almost neurotic about taking over Rivers State,” the politician said.
“Incidentally, the lower courts ruled on January 7, that the APC could not present candidates in the coming elections, in about four weeks. The matter would probably end up in the Supreme Court, and with people like Onnoghen in charge, they could not be sure that the process would move fast enough, or in their favour. Hence, they assembled a lynch mob to hang him quickly, in the hope that they might be able to replace him with a more pliant person.
“As for the Presidential aide denying that the President has “not asked the CJN to resign”, he may be speaking the truth. After all, are we even sure that the President is “aware” of what is going on? It all looks like one of those cloak and dagger scams, for which the ruling cabal is, by now quite notorious. All done, of course, in the name of the president, or preferably, the more anonymous, Presidency. For them, it is a desperate situation, as they say, demands a desperate solution.”
Indeed, trouble started for Onnoghen when Dennis Aghanya, the executive secretary of the Anti-Corruption and Research Based Data Initiative, ARDI, a civil society group, petitioned the CCB, over an alleged non-declaration of assets by the CJN.
The petition, dated January 7, 2019, was signed by Aghanya and was stamped “received” by the office of the CCB chairman on January 9.
The ARDI, in the letter, alleged that “Onnoghen was the owner of sundry accounts primarily funded through cash deposits made by himself up till as recently as August 10, 2016, which appear to have been run in a manner inconsistent with financial transparency and the code of conduct for public officials.”
In the petition, the group said Onnoghen made five different cash deposits of $10,000 each on March 8, 2011, into Standard Chartered Bank Account 1062650; two separate cash deposits of $5,000 each followed by four cash deposits of $10,000 each on June 7, 2011.
It added that the CJN further made another set of five separate cash deposits of $10,000 each on June 27, 2011, and four more cash deposits of $10,000 each the following day.
The group alleged that prior to 2016, Onnoghen appeared “to have suppressed or otherwise concealed the existence of these multiple domiciliary accounts owned by him, as well as the substantial cash balances in them.”
It said: “The discrepancy between Justice Walter Onnoghen’s two CCB forms that were filed on the same day is significant.
“In filling the section on Details of Assets, particularly cash in Nigerian Banks, His Lordship, as Declarant SCN: 000014, mentioned only two bank accounts: Union Bank account number 0021464934 in Abuja, with balance of N9,536,407, as of 14th November, 2014, and Union Bank account number 0012783291 in Calabar, with balance of N11, 456,311 as of 14th November, 2014.
“The sources of the funds in these accounts are stated as salaries, estacodes and allowances.
“As Declarant SCN: 000015, His Lordship, however, lists seven bank accounts: Standard Chartered account 00001062667, with balance of N3,221,807.05 as of 14th November, 2016; Standard Chartered account 00001062650, with balance of $164,804.82, as of 14th November, 2016; Standard Chartered account 5001062686, with balance of €55,154.56, as of 14th November, 2016.”
Others are Standard Chartered Bank account 5001062679 with balance of £108,352.2, as of 14th November, 2016; Standard Chartered Bank account 5001062693 with balance of N8,131,195.27, as of 14th November, 2016; Union Bank account 00021464934 with balance of N23,261,568.89, as of 14th November, 2016 and Union Bank account 0012783291 with balance of N14,695,029.12, as of 14th November, 2016.
The petitioner alleged that the foreign currencies in the Standard Chartered Bank accounts that were declared by the CJN had been in existence since 2011, noting that the number one judicial officer in the country appeared to have concealed the substantial money in them.
It stated: “It is curious that these domiciliary accounts were not declared in one of the two CCB Forms filed by Justice Onnoghen on the same day, 14th December, 2016.”
The group stated that Onnoghen did not declare his assets immediately after taking office, contrary to Section 15 (1) of Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, stressing that he did not comply with the constitutional requirement for public servants to declare their assets every four years during their career.
Also alleged against him is that his Code of Conduct Bureau Forms (Form CCB 1) for 2014 and 2016 were dated and filed on the same day and the acknowledgement slips were issued for both on December 14, 2016 — at which point, they said, Onnoghen had become the CJN.
Onnoghen assumed office as the CJN on March 6, 2017.
The government connection in the matter is that Aghanya was Buhari’s aide between 2009 and 2011 and the pioneer national publicity secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC. He is also the founding member of The Buhari Organisation, TBO.
In fact, when the National Assembly had a face-off with the president over the lack of due process on the purchase of $496 million aircraft from the United States, Aghanya appealed to the leadership of the legislature to show understanding. He had said: “For anyone to think of impeachment process against him is not right. We have many problems at hand. Violation of a constitutional provision is bad but it is worse to act in an immoral manner.”
Be that as it may, now, it is Onnoghen that is the eye of the storm. Can the Judiciary save him? That is a one million dollar question that will be answered as the incident unfolds in the next few days.
– Jan. 14, 2019 @ 19:08 GMT |
Tags: Walter Onnoghen in Eye of the Storm
