Social Media Persecution Versus Real Court Prosecution By Sylvester Udemezue

(Latest Reports on CJN Onnoghen’s Case at CCT as The Prosecution
Close Its Case)
(A Report given by Sylvester Udemezue on 22 March 2019)

Dear respected members of the Peoples Parliament, I hope you
people are still following up with proceedings before the Code of
Conduct Tribunal (CCT) on CJN Onoghen’s case. See some major
Highlights:

1⃣The Prosecution has closed its case against the CJN Onnoghen.
(See https://www.courtroommail.com/2019/03/22/fg-closes-case-against-onnoghen-after-three-witnesses/^[1]).
2⃣From the totality of the evidence given by the prosecution, and
the testimony of the witnesses called by the prosecution, the
following facts have emerged:
▶(a). CJN Onoghen has only 5 houses, not 55 as alleged by his
social media persecutors and liars. The first witness (PW2), an ex
director of the Code of Conduct Bureau, amongst other things,
testified that Onnoghen has only 5 houses as against the 55 he was
accused of having. He also stated that Onnoghen assets declaration
form has not been VERIFIED.

▶(b). All the evidence the prosecution gave is on the contents
of the CJN’s asset declaration form. No prosecution witness said
anything about the alleged non-declared assets nor
of any false declaration of assets of the CJN. No one told us the
contents of what he was said to not have declared.

▶(c). CJN Onnoghen’s Asset Declaration Forms were NOT verified
as required by law before the charges against him were filed at the
CCT. A prosecution witness revealed that the column for verified
assets had not been signed as verified even as at today. According
to the witness, it is the standard practice at the CCB that
returned asset declaration forms must pass through three stages of
verification. Hear the witness speaking before the CCT: “My lord we
have three stages of verification, the first is at the time of
submission of forms, the second is what we call conference
verification whereby we invite the person. And the third is
physical verification of the assets. Until these three stages are
completed, we cannot say that the assets have been verified”.
Commenting on this, a public affairs analyst, legal commentator,
and Law Lecturer, Mr. Nonso Attoh, has this to say:
”It’s shocking… After so many years they still haven’t verified and
yet they can quickly file a charge without taking the required
preliminary steps. At least you cannot say that there is a false
declaration if you have not verified it to be either true or
false.”

▶(d). Contents of Asset Declaration Forms are confidential, by
law. Such must not be accessed by outsiders, except with the
permission of the CCT Chairman. All returned forms are kept under
lock and key in most secured place at the CCB. “It is only with the
permission of the Chairman that the forms can be accessed”. A
prosecution witness told the CCT at the trial that he was not aware
that the CCB Chairman ever authorised the group that wrote the
petition that led to Onnoghen’s trial, to have access, make
photocopy or take away the Certified True Copy of returned asset
declaration forms in custody of the Bureau. The witness, Mr.
Yakassai, admitted that the petitioner quoted details of Onnoghen’s
asset declaration forms, his account numbers, verbatim, indicating
that they had access to the forms in custody of the CCB. Asked if
he would agree that it is a criminal offence for anyone to hack
into the archives of the CCB, the witness said he does not know.
“Honestly, I don’t know what happened here so I cant say anything
about it. I don’t know if the CCB had ever reported to the police
or any other agency that the CCB records were hacked into”

Reacting to this, Mr Nonso Attoh states: ”This is yet
another issue that any true lover of justice must be concerned
about which must not be swept under the carpet. Who authorized
access to the CJN’s forms while denying access to other forms. If
highly placed and influential Nigerians keep quiet about the
perversion of due process going on at the CCT, then we can be sure
that the CCT has become and will continue to be a hit-squad for
tarnishing the image of perceived enemies of the Executive. That is
clearly not the reason it was established.”

▶(e). NO EVIDENCE IN COURT THAT CJN HAS THE HUGE SUMS, contrary
to what was PARADED DURING THE SOCIAL MEDIA PERSECUTION ❗— No
prosecution witness has tendered any evidence on the large sums of
money the CJN was alleged on the social media to have. You would
recall that during the social media trial
persecutorial proceedings, it had been alleged that huge
sums of money were discovered in the
CJN’s bank accounts. Some people even claimed to be in possession
of leaked documents showing that the CJN had humongous amounts in
his bank account. Anyway, no one talked about all these at the CCT
trial and the prosecution has now CLOSED its case. Earlier in the
proceedings, the third prosecution witness, PW-3, Mr. Ifeoma
Okagbue, a staff of Standard Chartered Bank in Abuja, told the
tribunal that it was not true that the defendant possessed either
$1million or £1million in any of the five bank accounts that
necessitated the charge. Okagbue who told the tribunal that she
started managing Onnoghen’s bank accounts since 2015, gave a load
down of both the opening and closing balance of all the accounts
from January 2018 to January 2019. She said the accounts were all
linked to one Bank Verification Code, BVN, adding that the bank had
upon securing an approval from the defendant, diverted funds from
the accounts into various profit yielding ventures. The PW-3 told
the tribunal that profits that accrued from the investments were
credited back into the accounts.

While two of the accounts are in Naira, the three others were
Pounds Sterling, Euro and Dollar accounts. The witness told the
tribunal that all the accounts were domiciliary, and were opened
and managed at the branch of the bank in Wuse 2, Abuja. Before Mrs.
Okagbue mounted the witness box, the PW-2, who is a retired
Director at the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, Mr. Awal
Yakassai, told the Mr. Umar led three-man panel that contrary to
what was alleged in the media, he said the suspended CJN owned only
five houses. He said it was not true that CCB
investigators linked the ownership of 55 houses to the defendant.
(See https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/03/breaking-fg-closes-case-against-onnoghen-after-3-witnesses/^[2]). Commenting on
this development, an ibadan-based legal practitioner, Mr. Nwabueze
Onuoha, observes:

”What can one say about that learned SAN that went to
town demonizing the Hon CJN Onnoghen, claiming he(the SAN) did not
have more than or was it up to 10,000 US dollars in his account?
Should he not go back to channels TV and apologize to the Hon CJN?
I thought he would be called as one of the prosecution
witnesses..” Also, on hearing that the prosecution had
closed its case and seeing reports of the case as presented by the
prosecution, a former Attorney-General of Oyo State of Nigeria and
respected learned Senior, Mr. Michael Lana,
couldn’t hold back his feelings. He was compelled to make the
following comments: ”I think there’s something missing
unless the social media reports of the CCT proceedings are not true
…. The evidence proffered by the prosecution is at variance with
the charge. Mind you, the evidence we have read is the evidence of
the prosecution, not that of the defence. This evidence only proved
what he has which is far below what he was alleged to have and
didn’t declare.

Still nobody gave evidence on what was not declared. They
concentrated on what he has. Look at count 1 for instance, it
alleged that cjn between 2005 to 2016 failed to declare his assets
but nobody gave any evidence on this. The banker only gave evidence
on running his account in 2018: the CCB investigator said he has
only 5 houses etc. This has no relevance to the charge”. On his
part, a Learned Professor of Law, M. T. Abdulrasaq, out of shock,
posed the following rhetorical question,”What then is it
about what the CJN is alleged to have said he forgot to include in
his asset declaration form?”

▶I, UDEMS, on my part, just thought I should let us see how
things are going on at the CCT. Nothing more to say for now. Lest I
forget, I also read reports that the CJN is planning to file a
No-Case Submission. Have you too heard this. (See https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/03/cct-charge-ive-no-case-to-answer-onnoghen-insists/^[3]). I would like to
end this Report by referring to (with approval) a statement
credited to my bosom friend, Steve Sun: *”…. all of us who are
minister in the temple of justice, must always guard against laying
bad precedents …. The summary of my point being that whenever
age-old rules and/or norms are bent in order to suit a particular
person or situation, it will almost always come back to haunt those
who bent same!” (see cct-versus-cjn-steve-suns-eyes-are-now-open-he-has-woken-up-from-his-slumber-by-ibrahim-w-idowu-esq/^[4]). Finally, as I am
now used to saying, asking God to “bless Nigeria “is an ungrateful
and abominable prayer because God has already blessed Nigeria
abundantly. What Nigeria urgently needs from God Almighty is
HELP❗❗Yes, we need help. Quote me❗

I hope to be back with more reports shortly. Good morning
?☀?
Respectfully,
UDEMS.