Coupist Removal Of CJN: Cockerel Has Laid Eggs & Palm Kernel Ripped At The Tail Of Palm Frond In Buhari’s Nigeria –Intersociety & SBCHROS

(For Immediate Release: Onitsha Nigeria, 26^th
January 2019)-Cockerel or Male Fowl has laid eggs and palm
kernel ripped at the tail of palm frond in Buhari’s Nigeria.
Nigeria has irretrievably crushed and crumbled from being Africa’s
enviable citadel of hopes, civilization and democratic freedoms and
advancement to disgusting and despicable center of lawlessness,
tyranny and governmental brigandage; administered by an assemblage
of gerontocratic nonentities-Intersociety said today
in a statement issued in Onitsha.

Civilian and Kaki Buharism in today’s Nigeria and
the country’s history has not only become a nightmare for the
country’s democracy, rule of law and general governance, but also
deeply afflicted the country and her general population with
tragedies of chronic proportion. The worst of it all is that the
human rights elements championing Buharism in Nigeria have
irreversibly turned against Nigerians and become elements of human
misery and unforgivable enemies of Nigeria and
Nigerians-SBCHROs added today in a joint statement
with Intersociety

To say that we totally condemn the coupist and
impeachable ousting of the CJN, Hon Justice Walter Onoghen by
the sitting coupist President is an under-statement. The CJN’s
purported ousting is also nothing short of political witch-hunting,
abuse of power and office; and ethno-religious persecution and
intolerance. The coupists are so callously impatient that they
could not wait for the substantive CJN to statutorily reach his age
of retirement on 22^nd December 2020 having been born on
22^nd December 1950 or pursue his ousting through due,
diligent and constitutional processes.

We have carefully followed the reactions and counter-reactions
trailing the said impeachment of the Constitution by way of coupist
removal of the CJN and unconstitutional appointment of a vulnerable
and amenable element as “acting CJN”. We have specifically read and
analyzed the scripted speech of Mr. President and reactions from
the Nigerian Bar Association and the opposition political parties,
etc.

We also read the pro establishment reaction of Prof Itse Sagay,
representing the Presidential Advisory Committee Against
Corruption, justifying the coupist conduct of Mr. President. We
have further ransacked the existing Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria particularly Sections 291 and 292 and the
powers of the National Judicial Council over top judicial officers
like CJN as contained in Supp. Section 20 under Part 1 of
the Third Schedule in the Constitution.

In all these, it is validly found that circumstances under which
Mr. President can remove the substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria
contain no minutest ambiguities and are clearly stated and spelt
out. The conduct of President in the instant case is not only
unconstitutional and ultra vires, but also impeachable. No section
of the Constitution allows or empowers Mr. President to remove a
substantive CJN by ex parte order of substantive or auxiliary
court. It is also surprising how an auxiliary court that sat
on 22^nd January 2019 and adjourned to 28^th
January 2019; could turn around and grant an order ex parte a day
after it had adjourned to 28^th January 2019.

By Laws of Nigeria, the closest, quickest and easiest way
provided for a sitting CJN to be removed by the President through
the recommendation of the NJC is by the Presidency or Mr. President
dragging the CJN to NJC with booklet of evidence of his or her
misconducts and if credibly investigated and indicted by the NJC,
Mr. President can safely and correctly act or remove him or her
based on NJC recommendation. In presiding over the case or probe
against the CJN, in the event the President drags him to the NJC,
the existing convention provides that the meeting be presided over
by the next most senior Justice of Supreme Court to ensure
fairness and justness.

This procedure has been judiciously followed in Nigeria with Mr.
President acting accordingly and safely in law until his latest
goof. By virtue of Supp. Section 21 (b) of the Part
1 of the Third Schedule in the
Constitution, powers of the National Judicial
Council (NJC) include to recommend to the President the removal
from office of the judicial officers specified in sub-paragraph A
of this paragraph (i.e. CJN, JSC, PCA, CJs of Federal High Court,
etc); and to exercise disciplinary control over such
officers.

Further, contrary to Prof Itse Sagay’s misinformed and utterly
biased opinion, justifying the President’s coupist conduct, the CJN
can never be removed presidentially by mere or questionable ex
parte order of an auxiliary court (i.e. CCT) or by lodgment of a
criminal complaint before CCT. Contrary to Prof Itse Sagay’s
view, too, mere lodgment of a criminal complaint  against the
CJN before CCT is not and does not amount to “a breach of code of
conduct”; until the matter is disposed and the accused found guilty
and sentenced. Prof Itse Sagay’s opinion is also not only
mis-interpretative and incorrect but it is further viewed as
technical admission of Mr. President’s latest executive blunder and
abuse of office.

President’s Speech: A Voice Of Jacob & Hand Of
Esau

Nigerians are freshly invited to re-read and analyze the well
publicized text of the President’s address leading to the
presidential pronouncement illegally and unconstitutionally
removing the CJN. The President’s address is nothing short of
voice of Jacob and hand of Esau. It is
also beyond what a mere speech writer can prepare. Vice
President Yemi Osinbajo, possibly joined by Prof Itse Sagay;
strongly have a case to answer and must be asked by Nigerians to
tell them who actually wrote or prepared that speech or address and
advised the person of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Apart from the fact that the President we know or have is not
formally educated beyond arithmetic  indices or
grammatical parts of speech level, Nigerians are all aware or
it is a public knowledge that Mr. President is aging and has some
fundamental issues to settle with his physical and coherent health.
Those who saw Mr. President few days ago in Onitsha, Anambra State
confirmed or attested to this fact. As a matter of fact, a good
number of those that graced Mr. President’s visit to Onitsha and
Enugu said they went to find out if “it is Buhari of old Buhari
they knew or been heard of or Buhari of “Jubril of Sudan”.

Other than the above, the way and manner with which the
constitution and constitutionalism particularly the existing 1999
Constitution has been handled in the past 44 months or since June
2015 by the present central Government is utterly coupist and
impeachable. The Constitution and the principles of Rule of Law are
not only debased and castrated with reckless abandon but they are
also applied in skewed, unpopular and undemocratic forms.

As a matter of fact, the country has since June 2015 been
governed extra constitutionally or through personal opinions, self
interpretative and self help or initiative methods. Prof Yemi
Osinbajo and Prof Itse Sagay have severally been accused by critics
of “usurping the Constitution and the Rule of Law” or undermining
“the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria” through their
biased opinions including defense and justification of Government’s
reprehensible policies and conducts.

There also seems to be a grand design to use “principle of
vicarious liability” to gross disadvantage of the person and
personality of Mr. President; whereby in a cabalistic
manner, the person of Mr. President is deliberately,
mischievously and selfishly  pushed or encouraged or misled or
ill-advised or misinformed by members of the country’s ruling cabal
particularly the so called “Learned Silk” or “activist legal icons”
among them; to take or embark on taking certain unpopular and
disintegrative positions, making the President and his person to
solely bear the consequences or face damnation of such unpopular
and disintegrative actions or conducts while in office or after
leaving office. These are deliberately designed using the principle
of “vicarious liability”.

In other words, when the Presidency of Buhari finally ends, the
person and personality of President Muhammadu Buhari will singly
bear all the consequences and damnation alone, while those who
actually caused, misled, ill-advised and misinformed him into
taking such ill-fated actions will go scot-free or get transformed
into “old wine in new bottle”; especially in the nowadays Nigeria’s
battered polity hit by gale of defection and political trading or
mercantilism. Such was the case with the likes of Sani Abacha,
Olusegun Obasanjo, Late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck
Jonathan.

In the instance case, therefore, it will almost be an act of
impossibility for Vice President Yemi Osinbajo both as a Prof of
Law, Senior Advocate of Nigerian Legal Practice and so called
“human rights activist”; not to be circumstantially or directly
linked to the latest constitutional coup or impeachment.

Prof Osinbajo since assuming office as Nigeria’s Vice President
has received several condemnations from the informed critics for
disadvantageously using his position as law professor to undermine
constitutionalism and principles of rule of law and democracy in
Nigeria. This he does by unleashing and imposing his personal
biases and opinions as the law and governing principles on Nigeria
and Nigerians.

This explains why we have resolved henceforth to include his
name and position as vicarious perpetrator or accomplice
in our national, regional and international advocacy campaigns
against state crimes and other forms of mis-governance perpetrated
and perpetuated by the present central Government in Nigeria. Also
individual or collective victim or public interest litigation
within and beyond national borders shall henceforth have his name
and position included until he reverses himself and correctly and
credibly parades himself as a true professor of law and activist
Senior Advocate of Nigerian Legal Practice.

We therefore totally align ourselves with the positions already
taken on the issue by other democratic movements including NBA and
CUPP; provided they are not turned into the roaring of toothless
lion. All courts in Nigeria must be shut down and organized labour
movement down tools until the constitutional impeachment is
unconditionally reversed and the CJN presidentially reinstated by
Mr. President.

Signed

For: Int’l Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of
Law

Barr Chinwe Umeche and Barr Obianuju Joy
Igboeli

Contacts:

Mobile Line: +2348182411462

Email: info@intersociety-ng.org^[1]

Website: www.intersociety-ng.org^[2]

For: Southeast Based Coalition of Human Rights &
Democracy Organizations (SBCHROs)

Emeka Umeagbalasi, Aloysius Attah and Jerry Chukwuokoro,
PhD

Mobile Lines: +2348174090052, +2348035090548 and
+2348035372962

Email: southeastrightscoalition@gmail.com^[3]

Groups in the Coalition:

• CLO, Southeast Zone
• CLO, Anambra State Branch
• Forum for Promotion of National Ethos & Values
  (FPNEV)
• Igbo Ekunie Initiative
• Int’l Solidarity for Peace & Human Rights Initiative
  (ISPHRI)
• Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy & Dev
  (FENRAD)
• Society for Economic Rights & Social Justice
  (SERSj)
• Human Rights Organization of Nigeria
  (HRON)
• Center for Human Rights & Peace Advocacy
  (CHRPA)
• Southeast Good Governance Forum (SEGGF)
• Society Watch & Advocacy Project (of
  Intersociety)-WASP
• Initiative for Ideal Dev & Emancipatory Leadership in
  Nigeria (IDEAL)
• Igbo National Council (INC)
• Anambra Human Rights Forum (ANHRF)
• Voice of the Voiceless Int’l (VOVI)
• Easy Life Initiative for Rural Youths
  (ELIRY)
• Igbo Bu Igbo Organization
• Community Empowerment Network
• Southeast Movement against Transactional Politics &
  Profligacy