Although vice president Yemi Osinbajo said President Muhammadu Buhari was not aware of the trial of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) until the media broke the story, the Federal Government has ordered the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to freeze all bank accounts belonging to the CJN in a dramatic escalation of a potential showdown between the executive and judiciary branches of government. A letter to that effect through the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami was dated January 14. It was signed by one Abiodun Aikomo and received by the NFIU on the same date.
The letter was titled, “Request for Freezing of Bank Accounts Subject to Investigation and Prosecution Pursuant to Presidential Executive Order 6 of July 5, 2018 on Preservation of Assets Connected with Corruption.” The Nigerian government is suing the CJN for refusal to declare his assets in breach of the provision of the Code of Conduct Bureau Act. He is also being accused of maintaining domiciliary foreign currencies account which comprised Dollars Account, Pound Sterling Account and Euro Account which are alleged to be contrary to relevant laws, especially for public office holders. The memo directed that the NFIU should restrict normal banking on accounts belonging to the CJN pending the determination of the case.
Onnoghen is facing a six-count charge of false declaration of assets at the CCT. He was scheduled to be arraigned on Monday, January 14, but the trial was adjourned to till Tuesday, January 22. The fact that the order to freeze Onnoghen’s account was issued on the same day of his planned arraignment raises fundamental questions over the veracity of the claim by the vice-president; who told the third Annual New Media Conference organized by Online Publishers Association of Nigeria (OPAN) in Abuja, that Buhari had no knowledge of Onnoghen’s arraignment and that the president would not interfere.
“I can tell you for a fact that he did not even know about this (CJN trial) until Saturday evening. I don’t feel good about it that senior members of my profession are being tried,” Osinbajo said. “Sometimes, it has consequences such as we have today, such that people say: how can such an important person be subjected to trial without the Federal Government? But I can tell you without any equivocation that he (Buhari) was not aware,” Osinbajo said. He, however, said Buhari had issued specific instructions that anti-graft institutions should be allowed to do their jobs without any interference.
But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other opposition parties dismissed Osinbajo’s claim that Buhari was unaware of Onnoghen’s arraignment until Saturday. The PDP particularly challenged the vice president to explain why Buhari did not stop the arraignment on Monday or say anything on the matter since. “If the avowal by Osinbajo was true, then it goes to confirm the assertion that Buhari is not in charge of governance but has outsourced the responsibilities of his office to unelected individuals due to his incompetence,” the PDP charged. The party further accused the presidency of merely trying to sway public opinion on the matter following the outrage by Nigerians against the arraignment.
The Coalition of Opposition Political Parties (CUPP) in a statement claimed it was “in possession of evidence of meetings and call records of APC chieftains behind the ongoing attempt to force the CJN out of office.” It added: “With the happenings in the last 48 hours and the insistence of the presidency to either get the CJN to comply or be removed from office, we hereby notify the nation that the life of the Honourable CJN, Justice Walter Nkanu Onnoghen, as well as those of his family members is not safe. The situation will very quickly descend into compromising the security of the CJN. The APC government views the resistance of the CJN to the plot to hijack the Supreme Court as the only piece that has not been fixed in its grand design to rig and manipulate the 2019 general election for President Muhammadu Buhari and APC chieftains.”
Also, former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose said: “It should now be clear to Nigerians that President Muhammadu Buhari is not in charge of anything. He might not even be in charge of his existence, not to talk of being conscious of his position as the president of Nigeria. “Is the vice president saying that the minister of justice can unilaterally file charges against a high-profile government official like the CJN? What the vice president just told Nigerians is that the government is truly under the firm control of the cabal that the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, said Nigerians should rescue her husband from.”
But chairman of the Presidential Action Committee on Anti-Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itsay Sagay, backed Onnoghen’s arraignment, faulting calls for the CJN to be examined by the National Judicial Council (NJC). In a statement, he argued: “Some Senior Advocates of Nigeria have argued that even in a case involving the breach of the Code of Conduct, for which the law has already made express provisions, the matter shall be taken to the NNJC rather than to the CCT. They can’t be serious…. Even a baby, three months old, must realise that no one can get justice against the CJN at the NJC.
“The CJN is not only the chairman of the NJC; he is also the appointer of 20 out of the NJC’s 23 members. The CJN is the NJC. Only a grossly ignorant man or an extremely dishonest one could seriously suggest that a matter involving the CJN should be brought before the NJC for adjudication. Therefore the whole idea of taking the present case to the NJC is a nonstarter. That would make the CJN the chief judge of his own case; a clear violation, not only of the constitution, but also of a long-standing common law principle coming all the way from Magna Carter in the year 1215.”
He added: “Why is nobody talking about the substantive issue any longer… Did he do it? Did he not do it? The questions we should all be asking are: Did the CJN fail to submit a written declaration of all his assets and liabilities within three months after being sworn in? Nigerians should not allow themselves to be distracted by this vicious and dishonest campaign intended to sacrifice the substance of this case on the altar of technicalities. The truth must not be the first casualty in this matter.”
