The Governor of River’s state, Nyessom Wike, has accused the President of plans to rig the forthcoming elections because of the arraignment of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen for false asset declaration.
The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, will be arraigned tomorrow, January 14th after the Federal Government last Friday, January 11th filed a six count charge against the him over his alleged failure to declare his assets as required by law and for operating Bank Domiciliary Foreign Currency Accounts.
The Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), South-South Governors and Nigerians have reacted to the move by the FG as Onnoghen pled ignorance as the reason for the false declaration.
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Constitutional lawyer, Sebastine Hon, SAN in a telephone chat with Daily Trust on Saturday said the number of eminent lawyers that have volunteered to defend the CJN might even be more than 150.
The Chief said that he forgot to declare his asset when he assumed office as Chief Justice.
According to Premium Times, Onnoghen said this in a statement he sent to the Code of Conduct Tribunal CCB on Friday January 11th.
“My asset declaration form numbers SCN 00014 and SCN 00005 were declared on the same day, 14/12/2016 because I forgot to make a declaration of my assets after the expiration of my 2005 declaration in 2009. Following my appointment as acting CJN in November, 2016, the need to declare my assets anew made me to realize the mistake.
“I then did the declaration to cover the period in default. I did not include my standard charted bank account in SCN 000014 because I believed they were not opened. I did not make a fresh declaration of asset after my substantive appointment as CJN because I was under the impression that my SCN 000015 was to cover that period of four years which includes my term as CJN,” Mr Onnoghen said in his statement dated January 11
Meanwhile the six governors of the South South region will hold an emergency meeting today over the CJN’s arraignment as persons have begun to cry tribalism with the continued ‘persecution’ of the Southern CJN who is rumored to soon be replaced by a Northerner.
“It is a grave and dangerous escalation, coming a few weeks to the general elections,” the Governor’s said in a statement.
Governor Wike was even more blunt with his statement, claiming that the current Government intended to rig the forthcoming elections and so needed to have the support of the judiciary which led to the witch hunt of the CJN.
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‘Buhari is intimidating the Judiciary because he wants to rig the forthcoming elections.’ #LeaveJusticeOnnoghenAlone #CJN #Onnoghen #OnnoghenCCTtrialhttps://t.co/gQCDUsXDZw
— ≋🔝≋ (@AgorasBlog) January 13, 2019
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