Ime Akpan
The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has alleged that the presidency was planning to force the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mr. Walter Onnoghen to resign at gunpoint.
Spokesman for the coalition, Mr. Ikenga Ugochinyere said in a statement yesterday that the gunpoint option was taken after Onnoghen had turned down all the presidency’s juicy offers.
CUPP also alleged that some of the senior lawyers defending Onnoghen at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) where he is tried for non-declaration of assets had had their offices and homes circled, monitored and their telephones bugged.
It further alleged that the federal government had also resolved to use the vice president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to weigh in and coerce his colleague senior advocates to withdraw from defending the CJN.
The statement reads: “The CUPP has uncovered yet another dastardly plot by the federal government in their continued victimisation of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen.
“This time around, the Presidency has concluded the plot to force the CJN to resign at gun point after all mouth watering offers were turned down by the courageous Justice Onnoghen.
“The federal government has resolved on the dual action that the vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, would weigh in and coerce his colleague Senior Advocates to withdraw from defending the CJN and to resort to the use of security agencies to intimidate the legal team of the CJN.
“Some of the Senior Advocates on the team of the CJN have been trailed, their offices and homes being circled and monitored, their telephones bugged and most of them have had reports from their bankers that their account statements have been obtained by the security agencies and certain instructions placed on some types of transactions.
“Also, subtle threats of arrest have been handed down in a puerile attempt to intimidate, harass, scare and force them to abandon the professional job they have undertaken as provided in law.
“Neighbours near the Wuye office of one of the Senior Advocates are already apprehensive due to the activities of the security agencies.
“The workers in the farm of the CJN located in Uke in Nasarawa State have been threatened to leave their place of work in the farm or pay with their lives by persons who disguised to be Fulani herdsmen.
“We have credible intelligence that the visitors to the farm were arranged by the government, all to ensure the farm is crumbled and every other source of income of the CJN is blocked.
“The legal team of the CJN has written to the appropriate security agencies complaining of the warning and threats by the so-called Fulani herdsmen.
“The presidency had alleged and spread the fake news that the CJN hid billions of naira, dollars, pounds and euros in his various accounts, yet has been unable to file any of such in court.
“The Presidency encouraged the spread of the fake news that the CJN owns 55 choice properties in several plum areas of Abuja, Lagos, Calabar and other cities in and out of Nigeria, yet till date, has not disclosed the address of any of such houses because the houses only exist in their imagination.
“The attempt to use the spread of fake news is one that will fail and fall like a pack of cards. The federal government knows they do not have anything on the CJN hence their resort to purchasing a contrived ex parte order which the chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal shamelessly said he would want to cement by allowing the prosecution to move the motion on notice seeking the same prayer.
“The collusion between the office of the attorney-general of the federation and the chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal is tending towards criminal and the Nigerian Bar Association is hereby called upon to immediately commence an inquest into the circumstances that led to the granting of the ex parte order upon which the President claimed to have acted to unlawfully to force the CJN out of office.”
Meanwhile, the All Cross River Nationals Front (ACRNF), an affiliate of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) said that Onnoghen’s travail is a crude display of impunity and crass abuse of power by President Mohammadu Buhari.
In a statement issued by Senator Bassey Henshaw, Col. Pam Ogar, AVM Eko Osim (retd), Mr. Dominic Kidzu, the group said that All Progressives Congress (APC) government led by Buhari was bent on is to destroying the CJN’s career and forcibly annex and subjugate the judiciary to the whims of the executive.
“For some time now, we have watched with pain and fortitude, the macabre and brazen attack on Justice Onnoghen, Chief Justice of Nigeria. The obvious intent of the All Progressives Congress, APC government led by General Buhari is to decapitate Justice Onnoghen’s career and forcibly annex and subjugate the judiciary (an independent arm of government) to the whims of the executive.
“We urge you all, especially the minorities of the South/South to stand firm against this crass abuse of power. If President Buhari intends on ignoring the constitution, then there might as well be no elections.
“Let him use his military jackboots and continue to rule by fiat. But let President Buhari also know that Nigeria has travelled down this road before, and Nigerians will rise up, resist despotism and stop him,” said the group.
