About two years after he was sacked as the of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen has broken his silence.
According to him, the reason he was sacked is different from the one canvassed.
He claimed on Friday that he was removed because some people told President Muhammadu Buhari that he had a meeting with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who was Buhari’s opponent in the then pending presidential election.
He noted that it was rumoured he held the meeting with Abubakar in Dubai before the last general elections.
THE NATION reports that Onnoghen expressed disappointment with the presidency’s failure to authenticate the rumour before acting on it, despite its huge investigative capacities.
Onnoghen made the disclosure at the public presentation of a book titled: “Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules, 2009: Practice, procedure, forms and precedents,” authored by Ogwu James Onoja (SAN).
The Nation reported that Onnoghen who recalled the process leading to his removal, noted that the situation got to its head when all of a sudden his trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) was put in motion even when he had not been invited or accused of any wrongdoing.
He condemned his trial process before the CCT, and further stated that in the course of the trial and when parties had joined issues, an ex-parte application was suddenly brought in and “what followed was my illegal and unlawful suspension as the CJN.”
