{"id":16601,"date":"2019-04-05T13:41:59","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T13:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=16601"},"modified":"2019-04-05T13:41:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T13:41:59","slug":"walter-onnoghen-resigns-as-cjn-thecable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=16601","title":{"rendered":"Walter Onnoghen resigns as CJN – TheCable"},"content":{"rendered":"

Walter Onnoghen has resigned as the chief justice of Nigeria (CJN) with immediate effect, TheCable can report.
\nHe turned in his resignation letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday evening, a day after the\u00a0National Judicial Council (NJC) recommended that he be compulsorily retired for misconduct.
\nBy virtue of section 306 of the 1999 constitution, his resignation takes immediate effect.
\nSection 306 says \u201c(1) Save as otherwise provided in this section, any person who is appointed, elected or otherwise selected to any office established by this Constitution may resign from that office by writing under his hand addressed to the authority or person by whom he was appointed, elected or selected.\u00a0(2) The resignation of any person from any office established by this Constitution shall take effect when the writing signifying the resignation is received by the authority or person to whom it is addressed or by any person authorised by that authority or person to receive it.\u201d
\nThe resignation, TheCable understands, was the \u201cbest possible option\u201d for Onnoghen under the current circumstance.
\nIt will also save Buhari from having to get two-thirds majority of the senate to confirm Onnoghen\u2019s retirement as stipulated in\u00a0Section 292 (1) of the 1999 constitution which says a\u00a0\u201cjudicial officer shall not be removed from his office or appointment before his age of retirement except in the following circumstances \u2013\u00a0(a) in the case of \u2013 (i) Chief Justice of Nigeria\u2026 by the President acting on an address supported by two-thirds majority of the Senate.\u201d
\nBuhari may not be able to muster the needed majority.
\n\u2018GOLDEN HANDSHAKE\u2019<\/strong>
\nTheCable previously reported that Onnoghen\u2019s\u00a0retirement benefits in cash and kind will cost tax payers about\u00a0 N2.5 billion.
\nAs part of the package for a retired chief justice, a house will be built for him in Abuja with a nine-digit sum for furnishing \u2014 in addition to a severance gratuity that is 300% of his annual basic salary of N3,363,972.50, as well as pension for life.
\nJust like state governors, a retired chief justice is entitled to a number of domestic staff and sundry allowances for personal upkeep.
\nThis package for judicial officers was put together by the NJC long before Onnoghen became the CJN in 2017.
\nHowever, if he is dismissed, he will not be entitled to any benefits.
\nOnnoghen chose the option of resignation as a measure of damage control, his associates told TheCable.
\nCASED CLOSED?<\/strong>
\nTheCable reported\u00a0on Wednesday that the NJC had recommended the embattled CJN for compulsory retirement after deliberating on\u00a0a petition by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)\u00a0which alleges\u00a0\u201cfinancial impropriety, infidelity to the constitution and other economic and financial crimes related laws\u201d.
\nOnnoghen,\u00a0who denied all allegations,\u00a0is also undergoing trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) over charges of false asset declaration.
\nOnnoghen has closed his defence\u00a0at the CCT and the tribunal is expected to give its judgment at the next sitting on April 15.
\nBut for the crisis, Onnoghen, who is 68, was due for retirement in 2020.
\nIf the \u201csoft landing\u201d option is favoured by Buhari, the EFCC may not proceed with filing criminal charges while the case at the CCT could become academic because the major punishment for Onnoghen would have been his removal from office.
\nHe could be banned from holding public office for 10 years, while his assets believed to have been acquired illegitimately will be confiscated.
\n______________________________
\nBelow is EFCC report that may have swung the NJC’s alleged report against Onnoghen:
\nBETWEEN: THE ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIMES COMMISSION AND JUSTICE WALTER SAMUEL NKANU ONNOGHEN GCON.
\nTHE PETITIONER\u2019S FINAL ADDRESS IN RESPECT OF PETITION ON FINANCIAL IMPROPRIETY, INFIDELITY TO THE CONSTITUTION AND OTHER ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIMES RELATED LAWS AGAINST HON. JUSTICE WALTER SAMUEL NKANU ONNOGHEN GCON.
\nINTRODUCTION
\nMy lords, by petition dated the 4th day of February, 2019 signed by the Ag. Executive Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (hereinafter called, petitioner) to the Chairman, National Judicial Council, allegations of FINANCIAL IMPROPRIETY, INFIDELITY TO THE CONSTITUTION AND OTHER ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIMES RELATED LAWS were leveled against the Respondent. See exhibit P10.
\nFurthermore, my lords, by another letter dated the 5th day of March,2019, the Petitioner forwarded additional facts and findings to the Chairman of the Council which letter was referred to this Honourable Committee for necessary action. The petitioner adopted this additional facts and finding before this Committee and was admitted and marked exhibit P10A.
\nMy lords, at the hearing of this petition, the petitioner called 7 witnesses and tendered documentary evidence which were admitted and marked as shown in the table below:
\nS\/N PARTICULARS OF THE EXHIBIT EXHIBIT NUMBER
\n1 RESPONDENT\u2019S ACCOUNT HERITAGE BANKC P1
\n2 LETTER FROM HERITAGE BANK DATED 24\/10\/16 FORWARDING THE STATEMENT OF ACCOUNT OF THE RESPONDENT TO EFCC P2
\n3 RESPONDENTS UNION BANK SALARY ACCOUNT P3
\n4 RESPONDENT\u2019S STANDARD CHARTERED BANK STATEMENTS OF ACCOUNT \u2013
\nI. Naira Account (015001062693) \u2013 P4
\nII. Naira Account (0100260075400) \u2013 P4A
\nIII. GBP Account (2850160075400) \u2013 P4B
\nIV. USD Account (8700260075400) \u2013 P4C1 & 4C2
\nV. Euro Account (9350160075400) \u2013 P4D
\nVI. Investment Portfolio Statements \u2013 P4E
\nP4-P4E
\n5 UBA STATEMENT OF ACCOUNT OF NGOZI LAURA P5
\n6 INTERNAL MEMO FROM PROTOCOL UNIT SUPREME COURT TO THE CHEIF REGISTRAR DATED 11 Oct. 2018 P6
\n7 CIRCULAR TO ALL HEADS COURT DATED 28 MAY 2007 P7
\n8 LETTER FROM THE SUPREME COURT DATED 19TH FEBRUARY, 2019 TO EFCC WITH ATTACHED REGISTERED OF CASH SIGNED FOR AND RECEIVED BY THE RESPONDENT P8
\n9 FEDERAL TREASURY (CIRCULAR ON E-PAYMENT) DATED 22ND OCTOBER, 2008 P9
\n10 PETITION DATED 4TH FEBRUARY,2019 P10
\n11 EFCC LETTTER DATED 5TH MARCH,2019FORWARDING ADDITIONAL FACTS TO NJC LETTER P10A
\n12 RESPONDENT\u2019S STATEMENT TO CCB P11
\n13 RESPONDENT\u2019S ASSET DECLARATION FORMS P12
\n14 SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT (CHIEF I. OHAKIM& ANOR V CHIEF MARTIN AGBASO& ANOR) (2010) NWLR (PT1226) 172 S.C, Suit No. SC3\/2010 P13
\n15 STATEMENT OF JAMES ONOJA, SAN TO EFCC DATED 11TH AND 12TH MARCH 2019 P14 & P 15
\n16 STATEMENT OF IKPEAZU ONYEACHI, SAN TO EFCC DATED 4TH MARCH 2019 P16
\n17 Statement of Paul Usoro, SAN to EFCC Dated 4th March, 2019 P17
\n18 Statement of Emeka Etiaba, SAN to EFCC Dated 4th March, 2019 P18
\n19 Statement of Joe Agi, SAN to EFCC Dated 6th Feb. 2019 P19
\n20 Statement of Joe Agi, SAN to EFCC Dated 7th Feb. 2019 P20
\n21 Statement of Joe Agi, SAN to EFCC Dated 1 March 2019 P21
\nIt is also worthy of note that exhibits P17-P21 were tendered by the Respondent through PW7 Hary Erin, the Investigating Officer of the Petitioner.
\nMy lords, the Respondent called the Acting Director of Finance and Account of the Supreme Court and also testified on his own behalf. In the course of his defence, the Respondent tendered documentary evidence through DW1 and himself. The exhibits are as shown in the table below:
\nS\/N PARTICULARS OF THE EVIDENCE EXHIBIT NUMBER
\n1 Financial Regulations of the FRN p.80-81, Rule 1411, 1412 (II)&(III) Dated January 2009 R1
\n2 Foreign Currency (Domiciliary Accounts) Act Cap 151, LFN 1985 R2
\n3 Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and Miscellaneous Provisions) Decree N0. 17, 1995 R3
\n4 Judgment of the FCT High Court in Suit No. FCT\/HC\/CR\/21\/2016 delivered 2017 R4
\n5 Judgment of the Court of Appeal in Appeal No. CA\/A\/371c\/2017 delivered 2018 R5
\n6 Respondent\u2019s response to the first petition dated 4th February,2019 R6
\n7 Respondent\u2019s response to EFCC\u2019S Petition dated 19th February,2019 R7
\n8 Respondent\u2019s response to EFCC\u2019S ADDITIONAL FACT R8
\n9 Wedding Invitation for the Respondent\u2019s Daughter R9
\n10 PURPORTED PRINT OUT FROM THE EFCC WEBSITE R10
\nISSUE FOR DETERMINATION
\nWe respectively submit that the sole issue for the determination of this Honourable Committee is whether in view of the evidence adduced by the Petitioner, it can be said that the Respondent has not breached the Code of conduct for Judicial Officers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
\nARGUMENT ON THE ISSUE
\nMy lords, it is our humble submission that from the evidence on record, it cannot be said that the Respondent has not breached the Code of Conducts for Judicial Officers. My lords by virtue of his appointment as a Judicial Officer, the Respondent has a duty to actively participate in establishing, maintaining, enforcing and observing a high standard of conduct that will ensure and preserve transparently the integrity of the Judiciary. The Respondent is also duty bond, in the performance of his duties to adhere and observe strictly the rules set out in the Code of conduct for Judicial Officer and failure to do so automatically constitutes misconduct. We humbly refer my lords to the Preamble to the Code of Conduct for Judicial
\nIt is must be stated that the Code of Conduct for the Judicial Officers serves as the minimum standard of conduct to be observed by each and every judicial Officers. My lords, this explains why the preamble to the code provides: \u201ctherefore, this code of conduct for Judicial Offices of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is hereby adopted to serve as the minimum standard of conduct to be observed by each and every Judicial officer as defined in this code.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Walter Onnoghen has resigned as the chief justice of Nigeria (CJN) with immediate effect, TheCable can report. He turned in his resignation letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday evening, a day after the\u00a0National Judicial Council (NJC) recommended that he be compulsorily retired for misconduct. By virtue of section 306 of the 1999 constitution, his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":14605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}