President Muhammadu Buhari removed the then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, on the strength of a rumour, the retired CJN has revealed.
Onnoghen was unceremoniously removed as the CJN in 2019 on the allegation of corruption, and arraigned at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), a case which the federal government later withdrew.
The CJN who had remained silent all this while suddenly broke his silence on Friday, March 19, and gave the reason Buhari removed him as CJN some weeks to the general elections of 2019.
At a book launch he attended with his wife, Onnoghen revealed that prior to his removal, there had been rumour from the Executive that he held a meeting with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, preparatory to the 2019 general elections.
Onnoghen, who spoke at the unveiling of a book titled ‘Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules, 2009, Practice, Procedure, Forms and Precedents’, authored by a renowned legal luminary, Chief Ogwu James Onoja, SAN, said he was surprised that in spite of the fact that the Federal Government had all the machinery to investigate the allegation of the rumoured meeting with Atiku, it never did so, but opted to unlawfully go after him and his office.
Onnoghen said the rumour was thick and spread fast, but he decided not to react to it because he never travelled to Dubai or held any meeting with anybody, including Atiku.
Onnoghen said that the situation climaxed when suddenly, his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal was stage-managed, even when he had not been invited or accused of any wrongdoing.
The action of the government, according to Onnoghen, got to the peak when in the course of the trial and when parties had joined issues, an ex-parte application was suddenly brought in, and what followed was his illegal and unlawful suspension as the CJN.