The Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Danladi Umar’s threat to imprison some journalists for alleged misrepresentation of the proceedings in the trial of the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, has proved to be based on a wrong premise.
A Certified True Copy of the tribunal’s record of proceedings showed that Umar wrongly accused journalists of misrepresenting the March 18, 2019 proceedings in Onnoghen’s trial.
The CCT’s record bears the signature and official stamp of the tribunal’s Director of Legal, Bintu Garba A.
Umar had during the proceedings of March 21, 2019, accused three newspapers – The Guardian, The Pilot and This Day – of misrepresenting certain aspect of the proceedings which took place on March 18.
The CCT chairman attended the March 21 proceedings with the copies of the editions of the newspapers.
He read aloud the disputed headlines appearing on the front pages of the newspapers.
According to Umar, contrary to the reports contained in the March 19, 2019 editions of the newspapers, the defence led by Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), did not accuse the Federal Government of tampering with certain assets declaration form submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau by Onnoghen.
He alleged that the newspapers falsely reported on their front pages that the defence had accused the Federal Government of “tampering with” Onnoghen’s assets declaration form when, according to him, the defence only alleged that the form was in a “loose form.”
Reacting to what he described as the newspapers’ distortion and misrepresentation of the last proceedings of the trial, he threatened that any journalist who commited such infraction again might have to remain in prison until his retirement in 28 years’ time.
But a Certified True Copy of the CCT’s record of proceedings of March 18, 2019 obtained however showed that the reports faulted by the CCT chairman correctly captured the comment made by Onnoghen’s defence counsel.
The relevant portion of the CTC of the record of proceedings, is the aspect which captures Awomolo’s concerns about the tendering of Onnoghen’s asset declaration forms.
It read in part, “Defence: For 2014, the form has been tampered with somehow, in the sense that there are duplication of pages and with different entries, that is the first observation.
“There are pages, pages 3,5 that are duplicated with different entries and that is 2014 I am talking about now.
“The documents have become loose in a way. Even though it’s expected to be the original, it is loose in many respects.
“In 2015 declaration form too sir, it has also been tampered with, in the sense that they are in loose form, with duplication of pages and omission. So my lord, in the sum total, we have reservation about these documents but in the interest of justice, we will not object but we will address you extensively on the looseness of the forms.”
Onnoghen’s trial on six counts of failure and non-declaration of assets continues on Friday as both the defence and the prosecution will adopt their written addresses on the defendant’s no-case submission.