Court restrains police from arresting Onnoghen

The national industrial court in Abuja has given an order restraining Ibrahim Idris, inspector-general of police (IGP), from arresting Walter Onnoghen, chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), over charges filed against him by the federal government.

The court gave the judgement on Monday in a suit filed by Peter Abang, a claimant.

The suit marked NICN/ABJ/07/2019, has Danladi Umar, Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) chairman, National Judicial Commission (NJC), Federal Judicial Service Commission and the senate president as defendants.

The court also granted Abang’s prayer seeking to restrain Umar from going ahead to hear the case against the CJN pending the determination of the motion on notice.

“In view of the imminent danger of having res in this suit being destroyed before the hearing of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction and the affidavit evidence before the court, I am satisfied that the applicant in this case has made out a case for the court’s intervention to prevent and preserve the res from dissipation,” the court held.

“In view of the importance of the constitutional issues involved in this matter regarding the threat to the position of the number one judicial officer of the country.”

The court also gave a temporal injunction ordering the defendants not to force Onnoghen from vacating his office.

The development comes hours after a federal high court in Abuja stopped the plan to arraign Onnoghen at the tribunal.

The CJN was supposed be arraigned at the tribunal on Monday.