Onnoghen: Withdraw Your ‘Rubbish Case’ Against CJN, Agbakoba Warns Buhari

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.