The federal government has
reacted to the public outcry against the suspension of former Chief Justice of
Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Many Nigerians, as well as the
United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom have condemned the
development.
The Minister of Information and
Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has now faulted the criticisms in an in interview
with newsmen on Saturday in Ilorin.
The minister said the critics
ignored the real issues which concern corruption and the need to protect the
judiciary.
He said: “Anybody who read the
address of the president yesterday will know that he laid out the point and
reasons for the action.
“The first is that there are
additional evidence revealing that the suspended CJN refused to declare
millions of dollars in his possession
“More worrisome is the fact that
when the suspended CJN was confronted with the petition that he failed to
declare his asset, he admitted adducing the reason that he forgot.
“The people that are crying
tyranny and dictatorship should ask where the suspended CJN amass several
millions of dollars which he failed to declare.
“We are talking about fighting
corruption here. Are those people who are crying wolf saying we should condone
corruption?’’
Mohammed said the critics were
being “hypocritical and insincere” to say that it was right for a CJN to be in
possession of millions of dollars unaccounted for and not declared as required
by law.
He said contrary to the opinions
of some critics, the president acted legally by obeying the directive of a
court of competent jurisdiction to suspend the CJN.
“The president did not just wake
up in the morning to suspend the CJN. He was acting based on the order of the
Code of Conduct Tribunal.
“The fundamental question is that
where in the world will a Chief Justice of a country fail to declare his asset,
confronted with evidence that millions of dollars flowed into his account and
the only defence will be that he forgot.
” I agree with the president that
as soon as those allegations were made, the right thing he would have done was
to excuse himself.
“I also agree with the president
that the alacrity with which judgments were coming from left right and centre
supporting the CJN is a departure from slow machinery of justice that we are
all used to,” he said.
The minister stressed that the
president’s suspension of the CJN was sequel to the order of a competent court
and that critics should look beyond sentiments.
Since when did cash in the bank become asset?
ReplyDeleteMonkey, $900,000 cash dcleared by osinbajo then and about #5000000 declared by PMB are was under their pillows at home. Sentiment has make some of you so senseless and don't even know what wirte.
ReplyDelete