Politics

Still on Onnoghen, Saraki, Okupe

Law courts are globally presumed to be temples of justice where impartial judgments are dispensed. The least that could ever be expected from any government is to deliberately resort to using the instrumentality of law to discredit and blackmail perceived political opponents, as well as dissenting voices.

News broke out early this year that Justice Walter Onnoghen, who has now been suspended as the Chief Justice of Nigeria, failed to declare his assets and that he maintains bank accounts in foreign currencies and equally made efforts to obstruct the course of justice. The Nigerian media space, and particularly the social media, was awash with allegations that Onnoghen had 55 undeclared buildings as well as millions in local and foreign currencies.

The quantum of opprobrium and vilifications vented on the person of Justice Onnoghen by majority of Nigerians was enough to have caused a deeply emotional trauma for any being. At the speed of light, the man was suspended, replaced with Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad and arraigned at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), with the expectations that a truckload of damning evidence would be brought before the tribunal.

In the course of the trial, the undeclared 55 buildings and millions of dollars and pounds alleged to be in the accounts of Justice Onnoghen were just phantom an spurious allegations. Surprisingly, the bank Relationship Manager where the five accounts of Onnoghen are domiciled told the CCT that the man is still servicing a loan facility of $500,000 which he obtained with his investment in bonds and other investment. The witness further disclosed that, as of December 2018, balance in one of the naira accounts of Justice Onnoghen was N2.6 million while the other was N12.8 million. She also revealed that the balance of his euro account as of December 2018 was €10,187; while the pound sterling accounts, as of December 2018, had a balance of 13,730 pounds and the dollar account, as of January 2019 was $56, 878. The banker also informed the court that Onnoghen never operated a foreign account as the five accounts were naira and domiciliary accounts.

Prosecution team of the Federal Government had no other choice than to close its case after calling only three out of the six witnesses earlier lined up. On the other hand, the defence team of Justice Onnoghen immediately filed a no-case submission.

The Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, was made to go through the same tortuous and frustrating phantom trial at the CCT. At the end of the agonising trial that went up to the Supreme Court, a five-man panel of the apex court, led by Justice Dattijo Muhammad, unanimously upheld the appeal of Saraki and dismissed the remaining three-count charge preferred against the Senate President. As a matter of fact, both the CCT which initially dismissed all the charges against Saraki and the Supreme Court declared that the evidence led by the prosecution was entirely hearsay.

Dr Doyin Okupe is another Nigerian that is currently passing through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) trial. The man had been detained for weeks by the anti-graft agency and also subjected to media trial in which he was accused of receiving N750m from the then National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki, ‘for doing nothing’, whereas, such a huge figure was never mentioned when Okupe was arraigned in court.

Appeal Court declines request to stop Onnoghen’s trial at CCT

Okupe had insisted he was only getting N10m on a monthly basis which was later reduced to N5m. These monthly subventions were intended to be used to run the newly-created office of the Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, he had said. Out of these monthly subventions released to Okupe from the Office of the NSA, he listed those payments: salaries of 23 staff, newspaper publications and adverts, press conferences, research on public perception polls, sponsored weekly programmes on television and radio, travels, among other activities.

The judicial witch-hunt of activist Deji Adeyanju was wickedly taken to the level of imprisonment. The young man was made to languish in the Kano prison for an exhumed alleged offence he was said to have committed almost a decade ago, for which he had been acquitted and discharged by a federal high court. The three months he was compelled to spend in prison custody smacked off an orchestrated plan to keep the young man out circulation for the period of electioneering campaigns.

The list of Nigerians being persecuted in various courts across the country is endless. But the consolation is that the same court of law did not allow the wicked to serve the dual roles of prosecution and judge in his own case. Those that have resorted to judicial persecution of innocent Nigerians on the ground of their political leaning and dissenting views ought to know that the beauty of democracy lies with vibrant opposition.

President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to rise above partisan sentiments by ensuring that those behind the humiliating and wicked persecution of innocent Nigerians are deservedly punished. It must be realised that no nation in the world that aspires to be great can ever attain greatness by resorting to unconscionable persecution of its patriotic citizens on phony charges.