By Adesina Soyooye
Almost two years after he was sacked as the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Walter Onnoghen has, finally, disclosed why.
Onnoghen was, inexplicably, forced to resign on April 5, 2019, as the Chief Justice of Nigeria. Before his sack, and replacement by the current CJN, Muhammad Tanko, Onnoghen was hauled before the Code of Coduct Tribunal, CCT, where he was found guilty, among other things, of an untidy declaration of his assets.
The National Judicial Committee, NJC, in what was seen, in many circles, as a betrayal, backed his guilty verdict and sack.
But he has finally, sensationally, revealed that he was sacked because of Abubakar Atiku, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Describing the allegations against him at the CCT as trumped up charges, Onnoghen said he was sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari over a lie from the pit of hell.
And the lie: Onnoghen said they alleged, within the Executive Arm of Government, that he had held a meeting with Atiku in Dubai, ostensibly to influence the result of the election if it ended up in Court. At the time, Atiku was the PDP Presidential candidate.
Onnoghen made the revelations during the unveiling of a book written by a legal luminary, Ogwu James Onoja, SAN, entitled: “Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules 2009, Practice, Procedure, Forms and Precedents.”
Onnoghen’s sack shocked not a few Nigerians, and reverberated across the globe. It was unprecedented.
But speaking in the presence of his wife who accompanied him, and a venue packed full with legal minds in Nigeria, Onnoghen said the reason behind his sack first started as a rumour from the Executive,  a rumour he never took seriously, and so, never addressed, since he never went to Dubai, how much more meeting with Atiku. Big mistake.
Onnoghen: “There had been rumour from the Executive that I held a meeting with former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, preparatory to the 2019 general elections.”
He said he was surprised that even though the Federal Government had every machinery to investigate the allegation of his rumoured meeting with Atiku, nobody did so. Instead, Onnoghen said, they decided to unlawfully go after him and his office. He was helpless.
Onnoghen: “The rumour was thick and spread fast, but I decided not to react to it because I never travelled to Dubai or held any meeting with anybody, including Atiku.”
However, according to him, the ante was upped with a stage- managed trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal. Prior to that, Onnoghen said he was neither invited nor accused of any wrongdoing.
“The action of the government got to the peak, when in the course of the trial, when parties had joined issues, an ex-parte application was suddenly brought in, and what followed was my illegal and unlawful suspension as the CJN.”
Onnoghen’s sack was as controversial as the reluctance, on the path of Buhari, to forward his name to the Senate for confirmation as the CJN, after the expiration of his acting period. It was renewed again, but was finally sent to the Senate by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, as Acting President, when Buhari was on a medical trip to the United Kingdom.
The unconfirmed speculation, then, was that Buhari preferred Tanko to Onnoghen as CJN, and so did not want him confirmed for political reasons.
With Onnoghen’s controversial sack, Tanko, then second in command, finally, became the CJN.
