Justice Walter Onnoghen
…. Set for Arraignment January 22, 2019
The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) has at last succeeded in
serving the criminal charges on false asset declaration on the
person of the Chief Justice of Nigeria Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu
Onnoghen preparatory for his arraignment on January 22, 2019 at the
Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), PRNigeria reports.
However, the Tribunal will have to contend with orders of a
Federal High Court and National Industrial Court both in Abuja
which restrained it from proceeding with the arraignment of CJN
pending the determination of two different suits before them.
However, a highly dependable source told the PRNigeria not,
Nairalaw that the order of the two courts may not be
binding on the tribunal because they are courts of coordinate
jurisdiction which by law have equal powers.
The charges were served personally on the CJN on Monday 14,
January 2018 by 3.30pm in his office at the Supreme Court of
Nigeria Abuja. The sourced confirmed to the PRNigeria that Justice
Onnogen personally received the charges and signed for it, a
condition required before he could be properly arraigned at the
Code of Conduct Tribunal.
With the endorsement of the service of the charge sighted by
PRNigeria, the coast is clear for the Federal Government to
formally arraigned Justice Onnoghen on January 22, 2019 before
Justice Danladi Yakubu Umar led-tribunal.
The CJN was billed to be arraigned on Monday, January 14, but he
was however absent on the ground that the condition precedent for
his appearance had not been lawfully met by the prosecution.
Legal luminary, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) who led a retinue of
Senior Lawyers to defend the CJN had last Monday informed the
tribunal that his client was not at the tribunal to take his plea
because he had not been served with the charges against him as
required by law.
Besides, Olanipekun also told the three-man tribunal that the
CJN is challenging the jurisdiction of the tribunal to try his
client and that the 6 count-charge was not competent in law..
The ground of objection by the CJN is that as a serving judicial
officer he can only be punished for any offence committed by the
National Judicial Council, a body empowered by the 1999
Constitution to deal erring judicial officers without any recourse
to any law court.
Although the Federal Government lawyer Alhaji Aliyu Umar (SAN)
had sought to know why the CJN was absent in court, the Tribunal
Chairman, Justice Umar directed the prosecution to do the needful
by serving the charge on the person of Justice Onnoghen directly as
required by law.
The Tribunal Chairman said that although the charge was said to
have been served on a personal assistant to the defendant, there is
no established facts, that the charge was conveyed to the CJN by
his aide.
However, with the charge, now effectively served on the
defendant, his arraignment may be effected on January 22, 2019
being the adjourned date on the order of the tribunal.
The Federal Government had filed criminal charges against
Justice Onnoghen on the ground of his alleged failure to declare
his asset as a substantive CJN as required by law.