The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division on Monday, discharged and acquitted former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen of a false assets declaration offence for which, he was convicted and removed from office by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).
The Umar Yakubu Danladi led CCT had, in its judgment on false assets declaration charge slammed against Onnoghen by the Federal Government delivered on April 18, 2019 also ordered seizures of Onnoghen’s five bank accounts by the Federal Government.
But, a three-member panel of Justices of the Appellate court, in a judgement delivered by Justice Abba Bello Mohammed on Monday which was based on the terms of settlement reached in the matter between the Federal Government and the former CJN, set aside the decisions of the CCT.
According to the appellate court, “Judgment is entered in the appeal as per terms of settlement between the appellant and the respondent dated October 24”, and ordered that all the bank accounts with the Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Limited and assets seized from the former CJN be restored back to him immediately.
In the terms of settlement of the matter, it was unanimously agreed by parties that the CCT was wrong in convicting Onnoghen without resort to the National Judicial Council (NJC) as a body constitutionally empowered to discipline judicial officers in Nigeria.
The terms of settlement was endorsed by Onnoghen, two of his lawyers, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN and Dr Ogwu James Onoja, SAN while the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN signed for the federal government.
Onnoghen’s lead counsel, Awomolo announced the terms of settlement dated October 24 but filed on November 1, and was confirmed by Tijani Gazali, SAN who stood for the federal government at Monday’s proceedings.
Justice Abba Bello Mohammed who led the panel of Justices of the Court of Appeal pronounced the settlement terms as the judgment of the court.
The CCT had in 2019 convicted Onnoghen in all the six-count charge of breach of Code of Conduct for Public Officers brought against him by the federal government while in office as head of the country’s judiciary.
In the lead judgment delivered by Chairman of the CCT, Danladi Yakubu Umar, he had ordered the immediate removal of Onnoghen from office as the CJN and also stripped him of all offices earlier occupied among which were the Chairman of the NJC and also the Chairman of the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC).
The tribunal also ordered the forfeiture of his five bank accounts and the money in the accounts which Onnoghen did not declare in his asset declaration form submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau, (CCB).
Although Onnoghen had been on suspension since January 25, 2019 and had resigned on April 4 of the same year, the tribunal nonetheless ordered his removal from office as the CJN and also as the chairman of both the NJC and the FJSC.
Dissatisfied with the CCT’s judgment, Onnoghen on April 29, 2019 approached the Court of Appeal in Abuja with 16-grounds on why his conviction by the Tribunal should be quashed.
The former CJN prayed the Court of Appeal to void and set aside the CCT judgment delivered against him on April 18, 2019, on various grounds.
In his appeal marked CA/ABJ/375 & 376 & 377/2019, Justice Onnoghen through his lead counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, asked the appellate court to quash his conviction primarily on ground of want of jurisdiction, bias and absence of fair hearing.
Among others, he maintained that the Danladi Umar-led CCT panel erred in law and occasioned a miscarriage of justice against him, when it failed to decline jurisdiction to entertain the six-count against him and contended that the CCT Chairman ought to have recused himself from presiding over his trial.
In his seven-point reliefs, Onnoghen applied for an order setting aside his conviction as well as quashing the order for forfeiture of his assets and to discharge and acquit him of all the charges levelled against him.
Contrary to the CCT findings, Onnoghen, said he did not admit the fact of non-declaration of Assets from 2005 as Justice of the Supreme Court, adding that he only stated that he did not declare in 2009 as required because he forgot.
Onnoghen challenged the order for the confiscation of his assets on the grounds that the assets were legitimately acquired, as against the provisions of paragraph three of the Section 23 of the CCB Act which only permits the seizure of such assets “if they were acquired by fraud.”
He faulted the failure of the prosecution to present the petitioner, Denis Aghanya, before the tribunal whose petition led to the charges against him and
maintained that all the allegations brought against him “constitute no offence and should therefore not have formed the basis for his conviction”.
In a brief statement after the judgement, Onnoghen’s lawyers, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo and Chief Ogwu James Onoja, both Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), while expressing gratitude to President Bola Tinubu and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN for ensuring the resolution of the issue described the judgement as historical and very significant.
Awomolo said, “It is significant in that, it restored the dignity, honour and integrity of Honourable Justice Walter Onnoghen, past Chief Justice of Nigeria.
“More than these personal gains to His Lordship, is the fact that, the damage done to the honour, integrity, dignity and Independence of judiciary, the third arm of government under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended, has been rebuilt and restored.
“Two decisions and actions of the Executive Arm of Government between 2016 and 2019 did grave damage to the public perception, integrity and independence of the judiciary.
“The first was the invasion of the homes of judicial officers of the realm, including justice of the Supreme Court in early hours of the night, like a common criminal and bandits. It was claimed that there were allegations of corruption against the judicial officers. In the end, none of the judges, publicly humiliated, was found guilty of any corruption charges”.
The second one, according to the senior lawyer, was Onnoghen’s unconstitutional removal, which he noted was a clear breach of provision of the Constitution, adding that, the impurity of the Executive has no precedent and justification.
The two events, Awomolo said, have resulted in the poor public perception of Judiciary and low confidence in the integrity and independence of the Judiciary.
