The Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Walter Onnoghen, on Monday recently challenged the jurisdiction of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, sitting in Abuja, to have him on trial over his alleged failure to declare his assets.
The CJN, who delayed his planned arraignment after his refusal to show up before the Justice Danladi Umar’s led three-member panel tribunal, was however represented by a consortium of 89 lawyers that comprised of 46 Senior Advocates of Nigeria.
The legal team, which was led by a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, and a former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Kanu Agabi, SAN, said that their showing up at the proceeding was “in protest.”
Olanipekun told the tribunal that the CJN has already filed a motion dated January 14, to challenge the jurisdiction of the tribunal to hear the charges FG levelled against him.
“My lord, we are not just challenging jurisdiction, we are even challenging the jurisdiction of this tribunal to even sniff that charge. We have served the Complainant/Respondent”, Olanipekun submitted.
Although the particular motion was not moved, a member of the team who talked about the condition of anonymity, said the CJN would use on FG’s failure to channel the petition against him to their advantage, and also the result of the investigation that was reportedly conducted on his assets declaration forms by the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, to the National Judicial Council, NJC, before it rushed the case to the CCT.
The CJN is saying that FG’s inability to stick to existing judicial precedent as shown in a recent Appeal Court’s decision in Nganjiwa v Federal Republic of Nigeria (2017) LPELR-43391(CA), to the effect that any misconduct attached to the position of a judicial officer, must first be reported to and handled by the NJC.
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