By Omoniyi Salaudeen

 

The preceding week has been one of the extra-ordinary hubris by men of the legal profession. No thanks to a six-count charge of non-assets declaration filed against the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen, by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).  In the application dated January 11, 2019 and signed by Musa Ibrahim (Esq) and Fatima Danjuma (Esq), the CCB accused the embattled CJN of “failure to declare and submit a written of all your assets and liabilities within the prescribed period of three (3) months after being sworn in as the Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria on the 8th day of June 2005 and you hereby contravened the 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.”

It also accused him of failure to declare domiciliary US Dollar account, a domiciliary Euro account, a domiciliary (Pound Sterling) account, an e-saver saving (Naira) account and a Naira account, all maintained with the Standard Chartered Bank Ltd in Abuja.

The CJN in a defence statement dated January 11, 2019 in response to the CCB query said: “My asset declaration form numbers SCN 0014 and SCN 00005 were declared on the same day, 14/12/2016 because I forgot to make a declaration of my assets after the expiration of my 2005 declaration in 2009. Following my appointment as acting CJN in November 2016, the need to declare my assets anew made me to realise the mistake.

“I then did the declaration to cover the period of default. I did not include my Standard Chartered Bank account in the SCN 000014 because I believed they were not opened.

“I did not make fresh declaration of assets after my substantive appointment as CJN because I was under the impression that my SCN 000015 was to cover that period of four years which includes my term as CJN.”

Onnoghen had been scheduled to appear on Monday at the Code of Conduct Tribunal to answer to the charges. He was, however, absent.  Following the adjournment of the case till January 22, the Federal High Court, Abuja, granted a prayer for an interim order of injunction, “restraining the defendants, whether by themselves, or their agents, servants, privies or otherwise howsoever described from arresting, arraigning, charging of trying the CJN, giving effect to charge number CCT (ABJ)/01/19 before the second defendant pending the hearing and determination of the motion on motion.”

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On Thursday, Justice Evelyn Maha, who ordered that, in the meantime, the parties involved should maintain the status quo, further extended the interim injunction to January 28 to enable services on the respondents to be perfected. When the coast eventually becomes clear for the CCT to commence the trial, this will definitely go down in Nigeria’s political history as the mother of all trials. Onnoghen will be the first CJN to be tried by the agency of the Federal Government for an alleged ethical misconduct while still in office.

What makes his trial a peculiar case is the fact that it involves the third arm of the government. In a constitutional democracy, the doctrine of separation of powers presupposes independence of each arm of government to foster the practice of check and balances. It was perhaps for this consideration that members of the bar literally went on rampage on Monday, huffing and puffing, accusing the Federal Government of the plot to derail the nation’s democracy.

According to them, the constitutional power to investigate, discipline and sanction erring justice for ethical misconduct is the exclusive preserve of the National Judicial Commission (NJC). A suit seeking the declaration to that effect is already at the Federal High Court, Abuja, though no date has been fixed for the hearing. A lawyer, Chief Malcom Omirhobo, instituted the case to determine the jurisdiction of the CCT to entertain the charge against Onnoghen for the purposes of arraignment and prosecution for judicial misconduct without the NJC looking into the allegation. No fewer than 40 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) were on hand to defend the CJN at the CCT on Monday.

On the other side of this legal conundrum is the seeming restiveness of the opposition political parties who see the trial as an attempt by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to gag the judiciary and make it do its bidding ahead of the coming general elections. The South-south Governors’ Forum went a bit hysterical and angry in its own emotion, claiming deliberate victimization of Onnoghen on account of his birthplace. Threatening fire and brimstone after their emergency meeting, they passed a resolution, urging the CJN to ignore the CCT’s summon for hearing of the proceedings of his trial. The Niger Delta militants are also not left out of the convulsive reactions that greeted the trial, threatening to resume their bombing activities, if the trial is not halted.  While the presidency has denied having a hand in the trial, the office of Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, relying on Executive Order 6 of 2018, has also curiously directed the Director, Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to freeze the accounts of Onnoghen, pending the conclusion of the charge before the CCT.

Things took a dramatic turn on Friday when President Muhammadu Buhari announced Onnoghen’s suspension, pending the outcome of his trial at the CCT and immediately swore in Justice Tanko Mohammed as Acting CJN.  This was in deviance of the order of the Court of Appeal barring CCT from proceeding with the trial. With the latest development, Onnoghen’s trial has undoubtedly reached a flood tide, anything that stands in its way can only come down before its overwhelming power.

Nevertheless, that may not necessarily be the end of the road for Onnoghen, as his formidable team of legal defence is also more than ready for the mother of all legal fire-crackers.  With his strong home-based support combined with an array of legal icons, Onnoghen will surely fight a good fight. Whether or not he would come out of it unscathed, the answer remains in the womb of time.

Born on December 22, 1950 at Okurike town, Biase Local Government Area of Cross Rivers State, Onnoghen obtained a law degree from the University of Legon, Ghana, and started his career as pupil state counsel at the Ministry of Justice, Lagos in 1978. He practiced law for several years before he joined the bench.  He is the first southerner to be CJN since 1987, when Ayo Irikefe retired.