Onnoghen suspension: Judges, lawyers abandon courts in Cross River

The courts in Cross River State have closed her doors in protest
of the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria Justice
Onnoghen.

Ou reporter, who visited various Magistrate courts, High Courts
and other Courts along Moore Road, Mary Slessor Avenue in Calabar,
Cross River State capital observed that lawyers were seen outside
the courtrooms.

Some of the Courtrooms that have keys were locked while others
that have no keys were without lawyers, magistrates and judges.

All the lawyers were seen outside the courtrooms.

Speaking to our correspondent, a lawyer who gave his name as
Barrister Eyo Umo, lamented President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision
to suspend the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter
Onnoghen and appointment of acting CJN, Justice Tanko Muhammed.

He said, “The courts are not sitting today because we have
Nigeria Bar Association meeting. This meeting was called in respond
to the suspension of CJN and the swearing in of the acting CJN.

“We want to take a position which we have not taken. You may
have been aware that the National Exco of NBA is meeting as we
speak now, so we are waiting for that meeting so that we tailored
our decision here in line with what the National Exco is doing.

We got a special permission for the courts not to sit today
because of our meeting in Abuja, so there would be no court session
in the state pending when final decision is taken.

Also speaking, Barrister Jeremiah Arong, regretted the action of
President Buhari over the suspension of CJN, “As lawyers from Cross
River State, we had a meeting on the suspension.

“All the meaningful Nigerians are of the opinion that the
decision is against the constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria. What we saw clearly showed that, President Buhari has
suspended the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in a
democratic setting of ours which is not the best.

“From all look of things, President Buhari is thinking that he
is still a military administrator, this is not the same in a
democratic setting because during military administration, the
president could just wake up in the morning and say constitution of
the Republic of Nigeria is suspended.

“Every other thing is suspended, everything is abrogated but in
a democratic setting, it is not so, everything done must follow the
constitution. For instance the removal of the CJN which is the crux
of the matter did not follow due process of the constitution, the
President just wake from sleep and took that decision, that has
never been done.

“This is the first time in the history of Nigeria that Mr
President just wake up from sleep and say that the CJN is suspended
without following due process.

“The entire Nigeria is not taken it kindly, we are not happy for
this development because this is a complete derogation from our
constitutional provision, the constitution has made it very
clear.

“If President wants to remove the CJN, let the National Judicial
Council start the process, if the process is done, the next step is
moving to the National Assembly, the next is for President to just
sit down and say suspend them.

“Assuming but not conceding that the CJN had committed offence
that warrants him to be suspended, they must follow due
process.

“In fact the most worrisome aspect of it now is that the judge
of a court sat on an exparte order that Mr President is very happy
to parade himself along the street and say that there is an order
asking him to suspend the CJN, on what basis.

“Looking at that exparte order, the lawyer for applicant was not
there, so who move the application. If the exparte order must be
granted, there must be somebody who will invoke the jurisdiction of
the court, who will move the court to grant that application but if
you look at this one nobody appeared for the applicant who move the
motion exparte and it was granted, so what was the basis for the
granting of that application. Nigerians must rise up.”

He said the Judged of the CCT has a question to answer, “As a
sitting Judge, he knows that the supreme court had warned
severally, they should grant exparte order sparingly but not on
issue like this,” he stated.