The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has again urged the Executive arm of the Federal Government to discontinue the charge against suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Samuel Onnoghen.
This is coming ahead of the adjourned proceedings in the trial of Onnoghen on false asset declaration charges at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), scheduled for tomorrow
The NBA in a statement made available to DAILY POST, said that, as widely reported, one of the two petitions against the CJN that is currently before the National Judicial Council (NJC) was an exact replica of the petition that motivated the CCT Charge.
It further said that the petition was reportedly presented by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and commended the government for adhering to due process by submitting the EFCC petition to the NJC for consideration.
The statement read in part: “In like manner and in adherence to the law and due process, we urge the FGN to discontinue the CCT Charge and allow the NJC consider the initial petition which, as widely reported, has already been responded to by the CJN.
Second, the Chairman of the CCT, Hon. Danladi Umar, in his response to a petition that was written against him and which was forwarded to him by the Federal Judicial Service Commission, states emphatically that he and his Tribunal are answerable and report only to the Presidency, by law and practice.
He is absolutely correct. An insistence, in the circumstance, on the CJN, the head of an independent arm of the FGN, standing trial before a Tribunal that is under the Presidency and is answerable only to the Presidency, mocks the concept of and completely erodes the independence of the judiciary and the constitutional separation that should exist between the three arms of the FGN.
“It is precisely for this reason that our Constitution created the NJC and we are pleased that the FGN has warmed up to the utilization of that due process, as illustrated by the submission of the EFCC petition to the Council.
Source : Dailypost.ng
