NBA shuts down Cross River courts as lawyers protest Justice Onoghen’s suspension

The protest against the suspension of the Chief Justice of
Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, has continued to rock Cross River
as over 300 members of NBA took to the streets to register their
grievances.

The NBA members from Calabar, Ikom and Ogoja, branches, who
converged on the state judiciary headquarters on Mary Slessor
Avenue, Calabar, defied the rain and matched to the governor’s
office at Diamond Hill to present a six-point demand to the
governor for onward transmission to the president.

Some of the placards carried inscriptions such as ‘No to
Tyranny’, ‘Probe CCT Chairman,’ ‘probe Tanko’ and ‘We are not in a
military era.’

Others read: ‘Let rule of law prevail’, ‘NBA Calabar says no to
Executive Rascality’ ,’Nigeria not a Banana Republic’, ‘Justice
Onnoghen we know’ and ‘Who is Tanko?’

Reading the communiqué before it was presented to the state
Deputy Governor, Prof. Ivara Esu, who received it on behalf of the
state governor, Prof Ben Ayade, the Vice Chairman of NBA, Calabar
branch, Julius Idiege, said: “Cross River is the home state of
Justice Onnoghen. We have noted the efforts NBA has made and the
reactions all over the country. I assure you that as soon as the
governor comes back I will hand over the communiqué to him,” Esu
said.

The communiqué issued by the lawyers read in part: “We condemn
in the strongest terms, and wholly reject the unconstitutional
suspension of Hon Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen by President
Muhammadu Buhari, vide a black market ex-parte order issued by the
Code of Conduct Tribunal.

“We are horrified that the Hon. Justice Tanko Mohammed submitted
himself to be sworn in as acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, thereby
subscribing to this abuse of the constitution and we find the
actions of the Code of Conduct Tribunal perfidious and
fraudulent.”

The lawyers warned that “unless this abuse of the constitution
is redressed immediately, the rule of law will be in jeopardy and
this will drive the country towards anarchy” adding that “the
constitution of Nigeria must remain supreme and sacrosanct.”

They called on the president to immediately retrace his steps
and reinstate Hon. Justice Walter Onnoghen to preserve the
constitution which he swore to uphold.

Checks revealed that there was total compliance with NBA
national directive that lawyers should boycott courts for two days
as all courts in Calabar were shut down.