Group laments Court of Appeal’s late ruling – TheNigerialawyer

The Court of Appeal’s decision to deliver its ruling after the
winding up of the Code of Conduct Tribunal’s trial of embattled
former chief justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, is unfortunate,
Access to Justice has said.

The group, a judicial advocacy organisation, said in a statement
on Saturday that if the appellate court had reached its decisions
earlier, it would have represented a timely intervention required
in Mr Onnoghen’s trial.

“It could have halted the travesty and charade that was being
played out by the Code of Conduct Tribunal, under the guise of a
trial,” Joseph Otteh, the head of Access to Justice said.

“Today, the judgment of the Court of Appeal faulting the
obnoxious ex-parte order suspending Justice Onnoghen, as well as
denouncing the Tribunal’s disregard of the orders issued against it
by other courts halting its proceedings, has little else to it
besides academic value.

“The judgments are, therefore, not much other than hollow rites
of passage. The Court of Appeal’s moralisations on the conduct of
the Code of Conduct Tribunal at this time, therefore, are of too
little value because they were too late.”

A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal on Friday condemned
the “secret” sitting of the CCT to suspend Mr Onnoghen but declined
to rule on it.

The appellate court had reserved its judgment on Mr Onnoghen’s
appeal in February.

The panel, headed by Justice Steve Adah, condemned the various
decisions by the CCT regarding Mr Onnoghen’s trial, but gave most
of its verdict against the former chief justice’s applications.

For instance, the panel found that the ex-parte order granted by
the CCT on January 23 breached Mr Onnoghen’s right to fair hearing
because it was obtained in a manner “shrouded in secrecy and
clandestine manoeuvre.”

Mr Otteh said whatever the Court of Appeal’s views were on Mr
Onnoghen’s conduct, what was at stake was well beyond Mr Onnoghen’s
circumstance.

“What is at stake is the ideology of the court’s role in
preserving constitutional democracy and the rights of citizens. It
implicates the rights of ordinary citizens who have to seek the
court’s intervention in preventing some irreparable harm to
them.”

According to Mr Otteh, the judiciary is labouring under serious
threats to its independence, coming mostly from the executive arm
of government at both federal and state levels.

“This ought to be a time when courts would rise up and defend
Nigeria’s hard-won constitutional democracy with valour and
defiance,” he said.

“But our courts are drawing a blank, and making citizens fear
for their ability and readiness to protect them and the rule of law
in a country beset by so many problems of governance.

“If tyranny persists in Nigeria, it is because courts are, in
the main, failing the Nigerian people.”

Subscribe ToNairalaw News!