ONNOGHEN : WHEN THE JUDGE IS DOCKED...

Former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mahmud Mohammed 24 hours after leaving office on November 10, 2016 said, “We agree, corruption is everywhere, but you see we are all Nigerians.

“In the judiciary, it is there we need the assistance of all Nigerians to help fish out those corrupt elements within us so that we could fight with vigour to deliver a clean judiciary for the nation to fight against corruption and to assist in revamping the economy for the interest of this nation in order to secure economy all over.

“This is because the judiciary has a big role to play in every aspect of our lives.”
The summary of the above statement is that the judiciary is as corrupt as every other sector. In other words, those incharge of justice in the country are filled or full of injustices so to say. This is the angle those comfortable with the prosecution of Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen chose to look at his case with the Code of Conduct Bureau.

The CJN has been accused of maintaining domiciliary accounts with foreign currencies in various banks and false assets declaration which reports say he has clarified by saying that he forgot to update his asset declaration after the expiration of his declaration in 2005. This excuse or explanation seems not to hold water as far as his prosecutors are concerned. Some are already suggesting that he should face the exit door.

But critics of the Muhammadu Buhari administration opine that there is more to this case than meet the eye. They wondered why a mere petition by a former chieftain of the defunct Congress for Progressives Chsnge (CPC) and official of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dennis Aghanya against the CJN would be expeditely treated within 24 hours of its submission when other cases of similar weight have been either swept under the carpet or left in the cooler.

They point to the case of Danladi Umar heading the Code of Conduct Tribunal who ironically is sitting over Onnoghen's case. They allege that he also has a corruption case which has been kept in the limbo. The petition against Onnoghen according to sources was written on the 9th of January, 2019, a case instituted on the 10th of January, 2019 and by 11th of January prosecution had commenced.

This speed in the attempted dispatch of the case has kept tongues wagging as many suggest that it is an act of witch-hunting especially as we go into the election. The APC has been accused of trying to frustrate the judiciary, gag it and coerce it into working for its interest in the 2019 election if the opposition kicks and heads to court in any eventuality they lose and decide to seek redress in courts.

Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) in his reaction says, “If you ask me, I sense serious political undertones oozing from this so-called imminent arraignment of the noble CJN. Question, when did they discover the alleged offence for which they now want to charge him on Monday? “Was it just yesterday, was it last week, two weeks or six months ago? The CJN has been in office now for well over one year, how come that this misconduct or whatever offence that he is being alleged, was not seen up to now?

“How come, that it is just less than 40 days to the 2019 Presidential election, when the CJN is going to play the major role in constituting the Presidential election petition tribunal, that he is being moved against? Who is afraid of the Judiciary?

“Who is afraid of Justice Onnoghen and his impartiality and straightforwardness?
“How come we are reducing governance in Nigeria to one of impunity, one of despotism and one of absolutism.

“Don’t this people know that the world is laughing at us? Did we not see how Dino Melaye was yanked out from police hospital and taken to DSS quarters when he had no business or case with the DSS and DSS had no case against him."

However, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption has come out to defend the prosecution by insisting that no one is above the law and that there are no sacred cow in seeking justice hence the prosecution of the CJN should be applauded.

The prosecution of the CJN is still attracting huge debate as commentators differ on the real essence of his prosecution.