FG arraigns Onnoghen today S/South govs fault arraignment We’re on course – CCT
The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Walter Onnoghen will be arraigned today at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) over allegation of non-declaration of asset.
A three-man panel led by Justice Danladi Y. Umar will take charge of proceedings at the tribunal today, the Head of Press and Public Relations Unit of the CCT, Ibraheem Al-Hassan, told Daily Trust yesterday.
He said the arraignment is proper and that service of summons has been served to the CJN.
The Federal Government had in a six-count charge filed at the CCT on January 11 accused Onnoghen of failure to declare his assets between June, 2005 and December, 2016 contrary to provisions of section 15(1) of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act Cap C15 LFN 2004 and
punishable under section 23(2) a, b, and c of the same Act.
In the charge, the CJN was alleged to have failed to declare a domiciliary (US Dollar) account No. 870001062650 maintained with Standard Chartered Bank (Nig.) Ltd. Wuse 2, Abuja which is being operated since 2011.
The CJN was also accused of not declaring a domiciliary (Pound Sterling) account No.285001062679 maintained with the same Standard Chartered Bank (Big).
The six-count charge was signed by Musa Ibrahim Usman (Esq) and Fatima Danjuma Ali (Esq) on behalf of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).
Governors from the SouthSouth geo-political zone have asked Justice Onnoghen not to appear before the CCT) or resign as demanded.
The governors Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa), Emmanuel Udom, (Akwa Ibom), Ben Ayade (Cross River), Nyesom Wike (Rivers) and Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta) said this yesterday after an emergency meeting in Abuja. Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State was absent.
Addressing a press conference at the end of the meeting last night, Governor Dickson, who is Chairman of the South-South Governors’ Forum, said the action against the CJN further reinforced the perception that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has no regard for the sentiments of Nigerians and the Niger Delta people in particular.
Governor Dickson noted that the attempt to drag the CJN to the CCT was a grave and dangerous escalation of the assault on institutions of state, including the National Assembly and the judiciary, hence Onnoghen should not honour the summon.
The governor, who read through a communiqué signed by all the governors present, said they considered the step, which he argued was directly aimed at humiliating the nation’s highest judicial officer and a prominent son of the South-South region, as totally unacceptable.
He said it was reflective of the South-South story of “endless marginalization and intimidation”, adding that the “unceremonious removal” of former Acting Director General of the Department of State Service, Mathew Seiyefa and his replacement was still very fresh in their memory.
“Based on the foregoing, we hereby call on the President to condemn without any equivocation, this assault on the CJN and the judiciary especially coming after similar assaults on the National Assembly, to save the country from this embarrassment,” the governors said.
Many Senior Advocates of Nigeria have indicated interest to move against the arraignment of the Justice Onnoghen before the CCT.
The senior lawyers are expected to be led by Kanu Agabi and Wale Olanipekun at the CCT on Monday.
Daily Trust learnt that the defence team is preparing a preliminary objection challenging the jurisdiction of the tribunal to hear the case against Justice Onnoghen.
They cite the cases of Supreme Court justice, Justice Sylvanus Ngwuta, who was acquitted by the tribunal in May, 2018, and that of Federal High Court judge, Justice Hyeladzira Nganjiwa, who was acquitted by the Court of Appeal in Lagos in December, 2017.
Both decisions also relied on Section 158 of the 1999 Constitution in declaring that only the NJC has the powers to try judicial officers for any misconduct while in office.
Section 158 (1) provides that “In exercising its power to make appointments or to exercise disciplinary control over persons, the Code of Conduct Bureau, the National Judicial Council, the Federal Civil Service Commission, the Federal Judicial Service Commission, the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission, the Federal Character Commission, and the Independent National Electoral Commission shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other authority or person.”
A source also told Daily Trust that Justice Onnoghen is being advised not to attend the trial today, while the senior lawyers challenge the competence of the charges.
A constitutional lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), has called on the judiciary to close down all courts across Nigeria in the wake of the charge filed against the CJN.
Ozekhome said Nigerians should stand up to defend the nation’s democracy.
“It is clear to any objective observer that the charges are highly political, and designed to intimidate the Judiciary ahead of the 2019 presidential election and force out Onnoghen, who, as the CJN, will constitute the Presidential Election Tribunal that will entertain disputes arising from the presidential election,” Ozekhome said, adding that the charge was aimed to cow and annihilate the judiciary.
The APC said the swift statement by the PDP condemning the purported move to prosecute Justice Onnoghen over an alleged infraction on the Code of Conduct laws has again exposed the party as one with a natural inclination to rise up in defence of cases of alleged corruption.
The APC National Publicity Secretary, Malam Lanre IssaOnilu, said resort to baseless postulations anytime issues of corruption was levelled against public officers only confirmed what Nigerians already know about the PDP.
Issa-Onilu said PDP and corruption were Siamese twins that were difficult to separate from each other, stating that “one would have thought that the PDP will call for impartial investigations when corruption cases are levelled against public officers, but spinning falsehoods and conspiracies remains the opposition party’s favourite past time.
“The fight against corruption remains a cardinal promise made by the APC to the electorate. We assure the PDP and indeed all Nigerians that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration remains uncompromising in its determination to rid the country of this malady.”
“As noted on many occasions by President Buhari, it is only those who have committed crimes that need to worry. The APC administration will not hesitate to investigate and prosecute any public officer if and when such is indicted for corruption,” it said.
The party urged Nigerians to disregard PDP’s baseless conspiracy theory on APC’s participation in the 2019 general elections and voiced its commitment to ensuring that the forthcoming election was ranked as one of the freest, most credible and peaceful elections in the country.
Senate President Bukola Saraki has said that due process must be followed in handling the case of CJN Walter Onnoghen.
Saraki said the Federal Government should ensure that its plans to put Onnoghen on trial did not cause chaos in the country’s judicial system.
Saraki in a statement by his spokesman Yusuph Olaniyonu yesterday said if the government truly has genuine reason to put the incumbent the CJN on trial, it should ensure that every step in the process was transparent and the normal process as provided by the law was followed to the letter.
He said a situation where the petition which triggered the trial was submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) on January 8 and by January 10, the CJN was presented with it for his reply only for the charges to be drafted that same day and filed in the CCT indicated unnecessary haste and short-circuiting of the process of fair hearing.
While noting that the anticorruption fight has become a case of a separate rule for the people close to the executive branch and another set of rules for the rest of Nigerians, the Senate President stated that the fight has been compromised and politicized.
Section 15 (1) of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act C15 is the section, which mandates every public official to declare their asset in the period provided by the law. It also empowers the CCB to verify any asset declared by public officials.
It provides that “Every public officer shall, within fifteen months after the coming into force of this Act or immediately after taking office and thereafter (a) at the end of every four years; (b) at the end of his term of office; and (c) in the case of a serving officer, within thirty days of the receipt of the form from the Bureau or at such other intervals as the Bureau may specify.
“Submit to the Bureau a written declaration in the Form prescribed in the First Schedule to this Act or, in such form as the Bureau may, from time to time, specify, of all his properties, assets and liabilities and those if his spouse or unmarried children under the age of twenty-one years.”
It continues in the Subsection two of the First Schedule of the Act that “Any statement in any declaration that is found to be false by any authority or person authorized in that behalf to verify it, shall be deemed to be a breach of this Act.
Any property or assets acquired by a public officer after any declaration required by subsection (1) of this section and which is not fairly attributable to income, gifts or loan approved by this Act, shall be deemed to have been acquired in breach of this Act unless the contrary is proved.
Also, Section 7, Part I of the First Schedule of the Act states that “any public officer specified in the Second Schedule to this Act or any other persons as the President may, from time to time, by order prescribe, shall not maintain or operate a bank account in any country outside Nigeria.”
Public officers for the purpose of the CCB Act listed under the Second Schedule, Section 7 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act include: the President, VP, Senate President, Deputy Senate President, the Speaker of House of Representatives, Deputy Speaker, House of Assembly Speakers, Governors and Deputy Governors, Chief Justice of Nigeria, President of the Court of Appeal, and all law court staff.
Others are: Attorney General of the Federation and Attorney General of each state, ministers of the federation and commissioners of the governments of the states, Chief of Defence Staff, Head of the Army, Navy, Air Force and all members of the Armed Forces of the Federation, the Inspector General of Police, Deputy Inspector General of Police and all members of the Nigerian Police Force and other government security agencies established by law, Secretary to the Government of the Federation.