Walter Onnoghen and Tanko
Muhammad
Walter Onnoghen and Tanko
Muhammad
Appeal Court Throws Onnoghen Back to CCT for
Trial
The Court of Appeal has refused to stay the trial of the
suspended chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Samuel Onnoghen,
in the false asset declaration charges brought against him by the
federal government at the code of conduct tribunal.
The Appellate Court in a unanimous decision in a ruling
delivered by justice Abdul Aboki held that the prayers of Onnoghen,
that is trial, be put on hold, runs contrary to sec 306 of the
Administration of Criminal Justice Act ACJA 2015, justice Aboki who
read the lead ruling sited a case of Dr Bukola Saraki in which
Justice Onnoghen himself at the supreme court declined to stay
trial of Saraki on the same ground that section 306 of the new law,
did not permit the stay of criminal trial.
The Appeal court said that there were no special circumstances
under which the prayer of Onnoghen could be granted in the appeal
argued on his behalf by Chief Wole Olanikpekun.
In the ruling, the appeal court agreed that the prayer of the
appellant for stay of further proceedings ought to be refused, and
consequently dismissed the appeal, seeking to stop the Code of
Conduct Tribunal from taking further steps in the six count false
asset declaration charges filed against the suspended Chief Justice
of Nigeria.
The Code of Conduct Tribunal headed by Yakubu Umar had on
January 14th ruled to hear all motions that arose in the charges
against Onnoghen together and give decision on the motions.
But Onnoghen, having been dissatisfied with the decision of the
tribunal to hear all motions together had approached the court of
Appeal to set aside the decision of the tribunal.
His appeal was predicated on the ground that the issue of
jurisdiction raised against his trial ought to be resolved one way
or the other first before any other motion could be
entertained.
The Interim order granted by the court of Appeal on January 24th
has therefore been vacated in compliance with section 306 of
ACDA.
It will be recalled that the tribunal on January 28th adjourned
the trial of Onnoghen sine die as a mark in which the Mr. Kumar
said “was out of respect to the court of Appeal interim order”.
The federal government on the 14th sort to arraign Onnoghen at
the CCT on false declaration of asset but it could not hold due to
the absence of the defendant in the tribunal, who was said not to
have been summoned.
On the January 22nd, he was also not in court for the second
time, but his lead counsel told the tribunal that although his
client had been served as required by law, he was not there because
Onnoghen challenged the competence of the charge against him as
well as the jurisdiction of the tribunal.
Meanwhile the court has fixed 4th February for the substantive
appeal related to the competence of the charge as well as the
jurisdiction of the tribunal.
By PRNigeria