The President General of the pan-Igbo cultural organization, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, at the weekend, warned the Federal Government and the President that they are heating up the polity with the prosecution of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, noting that they are taking needless action..
The President General observed that legal opinions did not support the CJN prosecution over false declaration of asset and operating domiciliary accounts, saying that, therefore, the action should not have been contemplated at all.
In a statement signed by Chief John Nnia Nwodo, the President General remarked that Ohaneze received, with shock and disappointment, the decision of the Federal Government of Nigeria, acting through the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to prosecute the Chief Justice of Nigeria.
Nwodo observed that Legal opinion abound that the action is premature and ill-conceived following an extant Court Of Appeal decision which interprets the procedure for prosecuting judicial officers.
“This procedure has not been followed. The fact that the National Judicial Council has been ignored is not just illegal but suggests deliberate court shopping and a predetermined objective.
“Secondly, the fact that one of the issues being canvassed by the CCB before the CCT is for an order of the CCT for the Chief Justice of Nigeria to step aside from his exalted office pending the conclusion of the trial contrary to the procedure for his removal from office as provided by the Nigerian constitution exposes the aim of the prosecution,” the Ohaneze President General stated.
Nwodo noted that “a perusal of some of the depositions in the charge sheet also shows a completely distorted conception of the regulations pertaining to the declaration of assets…”
He emphasized that Assets acquired after assumption of office are declared at the end of a public official’s tenure in order to present a comparison with assets declared on assumption of office.
“The Federal Government is heating up the polity. Not long ago, we were entertained with all sorts of interpretations of the Vice President’s powers while the President was on leave. The GMD of the NNPC was accused of violating laws pertaining to the award of contracts. Because he comes from a protected ethnic group and class, no investigation was conducted.
“Fulani herdsman killed 110 natives of Nimbo, in Enugu State. Police investigations led to the arrest of some of the herdsmen with their telephone and pictures of the carnage but not one has been prosecuted.
“The same carnage took place in Benue State. Pictures of the murderers wearing the uniform of the choir members of a Catholic Church where they murdered their priests and members of their congregation were all over the social media. No one was arrested or prosecuted.
“Their sponsors, Miyetti Allah, addressed a press conference recently extolling their ethnic agenda and making divisive and inciting statements. Not one of them was arrested. The insensitiveness of the Federal Government to respect for our constitution.
“Its patronage of double standards in the enforcement of the law is sickening and abhorrent. If these developments are taken together with the obvious rigging regulations approved by INEC,we fear that our country is about to be thrown into a needless political instability,” Nwodo declared.