A Senior Advocate of Nigeria
(SAN), Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, has insisted that President Muhammadu Buhari cannot
absolve himself or pretend that he is not aware of charges filed by the Federal
Government against the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.
Speaking yesterday on Arise News,
Agbakoba said he would challenge the government in court.
According to him, the head of the
courts is entitled to certain immunity, different from the immunity granted the
president and governors by Section 308 of the constitution.
While advising the government to
withdraw what he described as “rubbish case,” Agbokoba said the belief that
Buhari does not know about the case is not tenable, adding that what the
president is doing is “plausible deniability,” just like the president of the
US always denies knowledge of actions of the CIA.
He hinted that President Buhari
is very much aware of every action against the CJN, hence he has not spoken out
about it.
The legal expert wondered how
efficient the Nigerian judicial system is, that the Code of Conduct Bureau
(CCB) would receive a petition on Wednesday, framed charges on Thursday and got
it signed by the chairman of the CCB on Saturday, adding that “that shows a
super-efficient federal government.”
Agbakoba stressed that due
process was not followed by the government in Onnoghen’s case, because the
National Judicial Council (NJC) should have been approached first in dealing
with the case or the Senate, adding that by bypassing the process, the
government’s case cannot stand.
“Only the NJC has the authority
to investigate any infraction by any judicial officer.
“We are strong and resolute that
this rubbish will not happen; it will have the gravest consequences, so I
appeal to the federal government to withdraw the charge, and in the event that
it has a case against the CJN, to proceed to the Senate to file a charge,” he
added.
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