By Gideon Njoku
For the first time since the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen was forced to resign from office, President Muhammadu Buhari has explained why he took the drastic action against him, even as he also said he was reluctant to do so.
In an action which was condemned by not a few Nigerians, Onnoghen was unceremoniously removed from office after he was docked before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, for deliberately not declaring all his bank accounts.
The CCT found him guilty, and recommended his removal from the high profile office. But the President, after about two months, accepted Onnoghen’s earlier resignation, instead of the recommended sack.
Now, for the first time, Buhari has revealed why he dealt with the former CJN.
Stopping short of calling Onnoghen corrupt, the President said he pushed him out because Onnoghen had millions in his bank accounts, which he neither declared, nor explained how he accumulated them. He had millions in both foreign and local currencies, the President explained.
President Buhari was speaking on June 26, in his office, when he received a faction of the Afenifere, led by Pa Ayo Fasanmi, and included APC chieftains, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Chief Segun Osoba in audience.
Said the President on Onnoghen: “Anybody who cannot account for what he has, and for refusing to declare, we will have to do something about it.
“I will tell you, that was why I had to deal, though reluctantly, with the former Chief Justice, because there were millions of Dollars, Euros, not to talk of Naira, which were not declared by him.”
Expressing his disappointment, and taking a swipe at the former CJN, the President said:” I wonder what sort of conscience some of us have. How can you sit, preside and lock up people for years, and even sentence some to death, and yet, you are not doing what the constitution says you should do by occupying that vital institution.”
The President’s revelation puts to an end the speculations over the real reason why the National Judicial Commission, NJC, couldn’t save Onnoghen, and, perhaps, why, the South-South governors who, at the beginning of Onnoghen’s case threatened fire and brimstone suddenly went quiet.
Only his state government, Cross River State, instituted a case challenging his alleged mis-treatment. The case was dismissed by the Supreme Court for lack of merit. Only one of the Justices gave a dissenting judgement.
Onnoghen has since been replaced by an Acting CJN, Hon. Justice Tanko.
