Planned move to remove CJN immoral, illegitimate ― Olabode George

FORMER Deputy National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, on Sunday, decried what he termed the crude attempt to remove the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, describing it as immoral, illegitimate, invalid, void ab initio.

George said this in a release made available to newsmen in Lagos, and further describing the planned move as an assault upon the rule of law as well as an outright savaging of the fundamental pivot upon which the country’s democracy delicately rests.

According to him, the move, which he saw as “untidy backdoor intrusion on the independence of the Judiciary” will not only puts the country’s democracy at risk but will equally create a creeping anomaly that would result in the emergence of an overbearing executive arm of government.

“It is an assault upon the rule of law, an outright savaging of the fundamental pivot upon which this democracy delicately rests.

ALSO READ:High Court ruling on Kwara APC a huge joke —Bashir Bolarinwa

“The untidy backdoor intrusion on the independence of the Judiciary not only puts this democracy at risk, but it also creates a creeping anomaly wherein the legislative and the judicial arms of the democratic tripod are being decimated by an overbearing Executive thereby reducing the nation to a dubious authoritarian rule,” George said.

The PDP chieftain warned that the executive must be very cautious, sensitive to the ethnic moderating balancing of this nation, as the impression out there was that a CJN from the minority section of Nigeria was being hedged out to pave way for a preferred substitute.

“The Executive must be very cautious, sensitive to the ethnic moderating balancing of this nation. For the impression out there is that a CJN from the minority section of our nation is being elbowed out to pave way for a preferred substitute.

“This is definitely not right. This definitely looms with unfairness and distasteful totality. Barely 33 days before the general elections and you are dragging the summative symbol of the Judiciary to a Tribunal with a hurried and apparently coordinated petition from one Dennis Aghanya who used to work closely with the highest authority in the land! Truly ‘something is rotten in Denmark,” George said.