Buhari Not Aware Of CJN Onnoghen’s Trial – VP Osinbajo

Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has said contrary to claims that President Muhammadu Buhari has a hand in the corruption trial of Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen, the President knows nothing about the CJN’s trial.

Osinbajo stated this on Wednesday during a workshop organized by the Online Publishers Association of Nigeria (OPAN).

The Vice President, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), expressed sadness that a senior colleague in the legal profession was being subjected to such trial.

“I feel very sad that this is going on at all,” Osinbajo said at the workshop.

He said, “President Muhammadu Buhari, his whole approach is that, institutions should just do their work. I can tell by fact, that he did not know about this until Saturday evening.

“He did not know that there will be any kind of arraignment till Saturday evening. He has said categorically don’t interfere with what the institutions are doing. Sometimes it has consequences like we have today.

“My take is that I rather not have a situation where members of profession are being tried for an offence.

“I don’t feel good about it, as a matter of fact, I feel very sad about it; that is going on at all. But that is my position on it but I want to say that this is the way it works.”

Recall that Onnoghen’s trial followed an initial petition written by the Chief Executive Director of the Anti-Corruption and Research Based Date Initiative (ARDI), where the CJN was leveled with allegations of false assets and non-assets declaration.

The petition by ARDI was acted upon by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) who consequently petitioned the Code of the Conduct Trial (CCT) after which the CJN was asked to appear before the tribunal last Monday.

Osinbajo said although the chairman of the CCB is new, he has gotten “specific instruction” on how to go about such kinds of petitions.

“In the case of the Code of Conduct Bureau chairman, where these things are reported to, he is new, he is barely three weeks on the job but the specific instruction is that if you receive a petition, however it is [you have to] go through the process,” Osinbajo added while urging online publishers to dig for facts on any issue.

“Justice is slow and unfortunately and it is interfered with it. I will like the online publishers to go into facts of the matter,” he said.

Meanwhile, the CJN’s trial on Monday was adjourned till January 23 after the lead prosecuting counsel, Aliyu Umar (SAN), admitted to the tribunal that due process was not following in CCT’s service of charges and summons to Onnoghen.