Elder statesman and former federal commissioner, Chief Edwin Clark, has urged President Bola Tinubu to no longer allow sacred cows to exist in Nigeria no matter whose ox is gored.
Clark claimed that some past Nigerian presidents who are corrupt are accusing their successors of corruption “without looking back at what they themselves stole while in office but no one dares to touch them.”
He said there is nowhere in the constitution or any legal document where it is stated that immunity is for life.
Clark stated this in a letter to current CJN Hon. Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, thanking her for resolving into finality the humiliation meted to Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.
The elder statesman, who recounted Onnoghen’s ordeal at the hands of former President Muhammadu Buhari, said the former CJN was humiliated out of office because the then president knew he wouldn’t condone the plot to rig the 2019 presidential election.
Clark, a NBA member since 1965, in the letter titled, New Dawn In The Judiciary, lampooned the leadership of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and Senior Advocates of Nigerian (SANs) for failing to speak up in support of Onnoghen.
Recall that President Buhari, on January 25, 2019, about 29 days to the presidential election, suspended Onnoghen from office as the CJN and swore-in the next most senior jurist of the Supreme Court, Justice Tanko Muhammad, to take over the leadership of the judiciary.
Onnoghen’s suspension came barely eight hours after he announced his decision to inaugurate judges that would preside over election petition tribunals.
Onnoghen was later convicted by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) on a six-count corruption charge by the Federal Government.
But last Thursday, the Court of Appeal in Abuja granted the request of the Federal Government and Onnoghen, to settle out of court an appeal challenging his removal from office.
However, in his letter to the CJN, Clark said, “I today decided to extol the Chief Justice of Nigeria for resolving into finality the humiliation meted to the brilliant former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen. The almighty God will definitely reward you when the day come at any time.”
Writing further however, the elder statesman said, “As for the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen in his own case, ‘a Daniel has come to judgement’. I knew he was not fairly treated; he was oppressed and humiliated by President Muhammadu Buhari and his Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami SAN. At this juncture, let me say this, President
Tinubu’s government must not allow sacred cows to exist in Nigeria no matter whose ox is gored. There is no one who is above the law in his own country. The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu and the Russian President Vladimir Putin are today being looked for, for trial but they are on the run. A president of a country is just one of the ordinary members in the country, but once elected, enjoys immunity.
There is nowhere therefore in the constitution or any legal document where it is stated that immunity is for life.
“Today in Nigeria, we have corrupt Presidents and some of them today are accusing their successors of corruption without looking back at what they themselves stole while in office but no one dares to touch them. Perhaps, it is an irony of fate for the former CJN, Justice Walter Onnoghen who was one of the Supreme Court Justices whose judgment favored President Muhammadu Buhari in his presidential election case in the Supreme Court in 2011. While the other four (4) Justices led by the CJN and strongly supported by Justice Niki Tobi voted in favor of President Jonathan.”
The Niger Delta leader said while Buhari compensated two justices whose judgement favored him in 2011, “The story was different in the case of the third Supreme Court Justice, who voted for President Buhari.
“He allowed him to rise to the post of CJN but he saw that, that was not good enough for him because if Justice Onnoghen was to remain the CJN, the mess and mischievous things they wanted to carry out during the Presidential election in 2019, Justice Onnoghen will not accept it and the best thing was to remove him and this was the secret plan between President Buhari and his Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.”
Clark described the show of shame that took place at the time as disgraceful, callous, unjust and so barbaric, adding that the then president stooped so low to humiliate a fellow Nigerian because he wanted to be president at all cost for a second term.
“Is it not disgraceful and unpatriotic to invite such person to council of state meetings, public functions or any government functions, pretending these were good Head of State and President of Nigeria? No.”
He said to humiliate a whole Chief Justice of Nigeria, another tier of the government, must be condemned and in fact brought to trial in the law court for this unpatriotic act.
He recounted that he was so disturbed by Onnoghen’s travail that he mobilised youths to demonstrate at the court.
“I remembered amongst the lawyers that came to my house was Hon Ikenga Ugochinyere, then a young lawyer but the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) shamefully was nowhere to be found.
“The Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) who form the inner Bar behaved worse than the outer Bar. The President of the Nigerian Bar Association Mr Paul Usoro SAN, an indigene of Akwa Ibom State, a state that was part of Cross River State – he and the then CJN were members of the Bar in Cross River State but unfortunately, he hasn’t got the guts and courage to lead a vibrant Bar Association.
“I called him and confronted him for not speaking up. I asked him that ‘is it because he was facing a criminal charge at the High Court in Uyo that he sacrificed the overall interest of the NBA and Nigerians?
“A coalition of civil society groups described the trial and conviction of Onnoghen as an assault on the judiciary by the executive. The groups comprising the Coalition in Defence of Nigerian Democracy and Constitution, Concerned Nigerians, Free Nigeria Movement and Mad Connect, said in a statement on Thursday, 18th April, 2019 that the judiciary had never been assaulted as it was under the Buhari administration.
“I am therefore very happy to have read that both the judiciary, particularly the Court of Appeal and the former CJN, Justice Walter Onnoghen have come to an amicable settlement and I wholeheartedly congratulate him for passing out the ordeal he was subjected to by the former President and I pray God will protect him and for him to always have the courage to fight for his right because Nigeria belongs to all of us and we are all equal citizens,” Clark noted.
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