The suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen on Monday told the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) sitting in Abuja that the two asset declaration forms he submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) were tampered with.
He told the three-member panel of the tribunal, headed by Danladi Umar that the two forms he submitted to the Bureau in 2014 and 2016 were mutilated and in loose form.
Justice Onnoghen made the allegation while cross-examining a prosecution witness yesterday when the federal government opened its case in the six-count charge of non-declaration of assets preferred against him by the federal government.
Onnoghen’s allegation came when the first prosecution witness, a senior investigation officer with the CCB, James Akpala sought to tender the two asset forms investigated by the Bureau.
The attention of the defence team, led by Chief Adeboyega Awomolo (SAN) was drawn to the two asset declaration forms, which the prosecutions wanted to tender as evidence and the suspended CJN was consulted for verification of the forms.
Onnoghen, after glancing through the forms spoke through his counsel, to the effect that the forms have been tampered with and that the tribunal will be addressed on the issue.
In his evidence in chief, the witness narrated how the CCB referred a petition from the Center for Anti-corruption Initiative signed by one, Dennis Aganya referred to him and two others on January 10, 2019 during which his team met with Justice Onnoghen, obtained a statement from him and also applied for his account details with a commercial bank.
The witness added that the investigation was concluded the following day the 11th of January when the team’s report was prepared.
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Under cross-examination by the defence counsel, the witness said he did not know whether the CCB has a central registry and register where all returned asset declaration forms are kept.
The witness also admitted before the tribunal that investigation into the petition against Onnoghen was concluded within 24 hours by his team and when he was asked if he was aware that the charges against the suspended CJN, list of witnesses and proof of evidence were prepared, dated and signed by the prosecutor on January 10, 2019, prior to the conclusion of his investigation on the 11th of January 2019, the witness declined to respond but when he was confronted with the documents he confirmed the dates.
Answering another question under cross examination, the witness denied that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was involved in the investigation of the suspended CJN but when confronted with the bank statements he claimed he obtained from a commercial bank was addressed to the anti-graft agency, the witness declined further comment.
Further hearing has been adjourned to Thursday the 21st of March 2019 to enable the prosecutor subpoena the account officer to Justice Onnoghen and also allow him to appear before the National Judicial Council (NJC).
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