A renowned legal practitioner and former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), also joined the stakeholders protesting the travail of the CJN, joining the suits seeking to stop the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) from going ahead with the arraignment of Onnoghen.
Agbakoba in a suit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, is asking the court to quash or set aside in its entirety, all the charges preferred by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), the CCB and the CCT against Onnoghen, on the grounds that they were illegal and unconstitutional.
Agbakoba requested the court to immediately mandate the AGF to halt the arraignment of the CJN on the basis of Charge No: CCT/ABJ/01/19 filed at the tribunal.
He argued that since the petition against the CJN was without prior recourse to the National Judicial Council (NJC), it is illegal, unconstitutional, null and void.
Agbakoba in the suit which also the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), CCT and NJC are 2nd to 4th defendants, respectively, contested that the proposed arraignment of the CJN before CCT without first having prior recourse to the NJC is illegal, wrongful, unconstitutional, null and void.
He stated that CCB did not give the CJN the opportunity to respond officially and in a written form, to the allegations contained in the petition submitted to it on January 9, 2019, signed by one Chief Dennis Aghanya, who was an aide to President Muhammadu Buhari in the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).
The former NBA President remarked that the 1999 Constitution and the Court of Appeal have made elaborate provisions for the discipline of judicial officers which must first begin with NJC.
He argued that the defendants failed to allow Justice Onnoghen adequate time to prepare for his defence in tandem with the principle of fair hearing enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.
Agbakoba contested that since the NJC has not received any petition against the CJN, all the steps taken to arraign him should be declared illegal.