CJN: Opposition Parties Plan One Million-Man March– Says Charges Will Fail Like Saraki’s Case

Opposition parties on the platform of the Coalition of United
Political Parties are planning a one-million-man march to protest
the planned trial of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter
Onnoghen, before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

The coalition’s first national spokesperson, Imo Ugochinyere,
disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists in
Abuja on Saturday.

Ugochinyere said the protest was meant to save the nation’s
judiciary and by extension, Nigeria’s democracy.

“Nigerian opposition will immediately commence mobilisation for
a one-million-man march to save the Nigerian judiciary from
President Buhari’s reign of destruction,” he said.

He described Onnoghen’s planned arraignment as undemocratic and
unconstitutional.

He said the plan was the latest in the strategies being deployed
by the present administration to rig the forthcoming elections.

He added, “The Presidency had during the appointment of Justice
Onnoghen shown its card that it was not comfortable with his
appointment hence it was delayed until President Buhari was hurried
out of the country due to perennial illness.

“Justice Onnoghen has since shown that he is fair, firm, and
able to do justice and will not succumb to the pressures of a
Presidency that is planning to rig an election as the only hope of
winning reelection following their rejection by the Nigerian
people.

“This dastardly move by the Presidency is the last desperate
acts of an outgoing government to blackmail the CJN out of office
and bring in a rogue judge to allow APC’s rigging.”

He enjoined Onnoghen not to resign for the sake of the nation’s
democracy.

He said, “The trumped-up charges will fall like a pack of cards
like those filed against the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki
and all the judges whose homes were invaded on October 7, 2016.

“These acts of desperation are an unequivocal declaration of war
on the Nigerian democracy by the Buhari Presidency and the ruling
APC.

“President Buhari is now living in morbid fear of losing the
election after he wasted the opportunity freely and willingly given
to him by Nigerians to improve their lot.

“This can only be a plot to manipulate post 2019 election
tribunal. Nothing else can be behind this despotic move to
desecrate office of the CJN.

“This plot is as sacrilegious, if not more, as the demolishing
of the homes of judges and not securing any convictions but this is
the last defence line of democracy which must be protected at all
cost even with the blood of Nigerians.

“We know we are dealing with a President who is a maniac now. He
is willing to bring Nigeria to a grinding halt. Nothing is sacred
to President Buhari anymore. Not the lives of Nigerians, not our
institutions of state, not security, not the economy, just
absolutely nothing.

“What President Buhari is doing is the height of impunity and
rascality. The CJN cannot be forced out of office even with a
trillion fictitious charges.”

Ugochinyere claimed that intelligence reports showed that some
ministers and leaders of the APC are behind Onnoghen’s ordeal.