Former deputy national publicity of the All Progressives Congress and an ally of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, Timi Frank has said that the recent statements attributed to Assistant to the President on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie and the President’s campaign spokesman Festus Keyamo, on the embattled former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen has revealed that the removal of the former CJN was premeditated.
Onochie in a post on her Facebook wall: “The real Atiku’s plan to destabilise Nigeria,” which was reported by national dailies had alleged that Onnoghen had a plan to judicially annul the February 23, 2019, Presidential election and hand over a default victory to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar.
She wrote: “The plan, yes the Atiku’s Plan was for Justice Onnoghen to annul the results of 17 major states won by President Buhari, thereby giving victory to you guessed who, yes, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. But Justice Onnoghen confessed to crimes against our nation. That put the spanner in the works for the Atiku Plan One.”
But Frank in a statement noted that the remarks of Special Assistant to the President on Social Media,” is an admission and a corroboration of what we have always known: That the persecution of Justice Walter Onnoghen was politically motivated and was not done in good faith, but was an attack on innocent man by the Buhari administration in its plan to thwart the will of the Nigerian people.”
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Frank further noted that Onochie has exposed the government lack of fidelity to credible election, which he claimed was part of the orchestrated plot to emasculate the judiciary by removing the CJN.
“Nigerians may recall that the petition used to suspend Justice Onnoghen was written by one Dennis Aghanya, who is a former spokesman to President Buhari and is presently one of his confidants.
“Nigerians may further recall that the Code of Conduct Bureau received the petition on Saturday, January 12, 2019, which is normally a day that the judiciary does not function.
“It would further be recalled that the Code of Conduct Bureau acted on the matter on Monday, January 14, 2019, and that never in the history of the Code of Conduct Bureau has a petition been given such breathtaking accelerated speed to the extent that the Code of Conduct Tribunal admitted that it had not finished investigating the case before it charged Justice Onnoghen before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.”
The PDP chieftain called on the international community to quickly intervene to save the judiciary and by extension, its democracy.
“Mr Dennis Aghanya’s and Miss Onochie’s actions are enough evidence for the international community to intervene on the side of the Nigerian people and the judiciary lest the brinkmanship of the Buhari administration leads the nation to the precipice.
“Already, the desperation of this government has seen them advance a ridiculous defence to the petition of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to the Election Petition Tribunal, to the effect that Atiku Abubakar is not a Nigerian and that President Buhari does not need a West African Examinations Certificate (school leaving certificate) to contest for the Presidency. Yet, this same All Progressive Congress is challenging the competence of Senator Ademola Adeleke of Osun State on the grounds that he has no WAEC certificate.”
Timi Frank, therefore, called on Nigerians and the international community to rally to the defence of the judiciary “before they are completely emasculated by this dishonourable and desperate administration.”
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