CASE NUMBER 10898:

CJN ONNOGHEN IS NOT ABOVE THE LAW

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Alleged Perpetrators(s)

Hon. Justice Samuel Nkanu Walter Onnoghen

Location (Town / State)

Abuja, Abuja

Date of Event

18 Apr 2019

Date of republication

18 April every year

Case category (Choose all that apply)

Case Summary

The Chief Justice of Nigeria and head of the Nigerian Judiciary, Samuel Nkanu Walter Onnoghen was convicted by the Code of Conduct Tribunal on charges on false declaration of assets.

Full story

Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen’s travails began on 7th January, 2019 when a petition was written to the Code of Conduct Bureau by a purported Civil Rights Group called the Anti-Corruption and Research Based Data Initiative. The petition was received by the Code of Conduct Bureau on the 9th of January, 2019, and the allegations contained therein were investigated by the officials of the CCb in less than 48 hours. On the 11th January, 2019, the officials of the Code of Conduct Bureau paid a visit to the Chief Justice of Nigeria wherein he admitted in a written statement that he forgot to declare five domiciliary foreign accounts he operated with Standard Chartered Bank.
The Chief Justice was to be arraigned before the Danladi Umar led chair of the Code of Conduct Tribunal on the 14th January, 2019, but he declined to submit to the jurisdiction of the court. The Chief Justice was represented by a team of lawyers including 30 Senior Advocates of Nigeria led by the Former President of the NBA, Chief Wole Olanipekun, and the former Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Kanu Agabi, and over 100 junior lawyers. The CJN through his defense team raised a Notice of Preliminary Objection to the jurisdiction of the Code of Conduct Tribunal to try a sitting judicial officer without forwarding the petition to the National Judicial Council for prior investigation and determination.
The Prosecution team however also filed a motion compelling the CJN to step aside as Chief Justice of the Federation and hand over to his next in command, Ibrahim Tanko JSC. Whilst the trial was going on, three separate high courts, including the National Industrial Court issued interim injunctions stopping the tribunal from taking further steps in the matter. The Code of Conduct Tribunal led by Danladi Umar however remained adamant and declared that it was answerable to only the President.
On 21st January, 2019, the CCT Panel in 1 split two to one decision ruled that it had jurisdiction and it would proceed with the trial, despite the court orders restraining it from continuing with the matter. Dissatisfied with this ruling, Onnoghen proceeded to the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal where he procured an order staying further proceedings at the CCT pending the determination of the appeal against the jurisdiction of the tribunal.
However, before the appeal could be heard, Justice Onnoghen, on January 18, filed the motion the appellate court, on January 24, relied upon to temporarily suspend further proceedings in the case. In what appeared to look like a desperate move to get the CJN out of office any which way, unknown to both the appellant and the court, FG had the previous day (January 23), persuaded the CCT to issue an ex-parte order for the Defendant to be suspended from office, pending the conclusion of his trial.
In a move that took Nigerians by storm, President Muhammadu Buhari, on January 25, suspended Justice Onnoghen and swore-in the next most senior jurist of the Supreme Court, Justice Muhammad to take over the leadership of the judiciary as the Acting CJN. The action of the President elicited varied reactions from both within and outside the judicial circles, with the NBA, describing it as a coup against the judiciary.
Onnoghen was suspended barely eight hours after he announced his decision to inaugurate judges that will take charge of the 2019 election petition tribunals. To further register its displeasure over the action FG took against Onnoghen, the NBA, ordered a 2-day boycott of court activities in the country by lawyers. Likewise, 25 constitutional lawyers, dragged President Buhari before the Federal High Court in Abuja to challenge what they termed as illegal suspension of the CJN, Onnoghen.
On January 30, the appellate court cleared the coast for FG to open its case against the suspended CJN. After a convulated game of legal hide and seek, Onnoghen, on February 15, eventually mounted the dock and pleaded his innocence to the charge against him, even as he was granted bail on self-recognition. He surrendered himself for trial, about 48 hours after the tribunal issued a bench warrant for his arrest.
Onnoghen’s trial came to a climax on the 18th of April, 2019 after the CCt Panel found him guilty on all the six-count charge. The tribunal said it was satisfied that FG successfully proved its allegation that Onnoghen who had voluntarily resigned his position as CJN on April 4, acted in breach of the code of conduct for public officers in the country. The CCT held that evidence of three witnesses that testified in the course of the trial, were not discredited by the defendant. The CCT Chairman, Mr. Umar, who read the judgement, maintained that Onnoghen’s admission that he forgot to declare the five accounts he operated since 2009, was “weighty enough” to guarantee his conviction.
He held that the defendant was unable to disprove “hard facts” that were brought against him by the prosecution. “The prosecution has discharged the onus placed on it beyond every iota of doubt. It is clear that the defendant was in clear breach of the code of conduct for public officers. The prosecution successfully established its case, and the defendant is accordingly convicted”, the CCT Chairman added.
Consequently, handing its sentence after it declared the defendant guilty, the tribunal, ordered that he is “hereby removed from office as the Chief Justice of the Nigeria, Chairman of the National Judicial Council and the Federal Judicial Service Commission. “Secondly, the defendant is hereby banned from holding any public office for 10 years.”
More so, the tribunal held that Onnoghen’s failure to explain how he amassed “huge amounts of money in his accounts”, was an indication that the funds were acquired illegally. It therefore ordered that the funds should be “confiscated, seized and forfeited to the federal government."

External links/URLs

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/04/onnoghens-cct-conviction-100-days-before-the-guillotine-fell/

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/04/onnoghen-when-a-judge-is-too-guilty-to-be-innocent/

https://punchng.com/conviction-of-onnoghen-victory-for-ant

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