NJC recomends retirement of suspended CJN Onnoghen over $1.7m cash, others

The National Judicial Commission (NJC) has reportedly recommended to President Buhari that Walter Onnoghen, chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), be compulsorily retired from the judiciary.

After deliberating on the petition filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday, members of the NJC unanimously agreed that Onnoghen has lost the moral authority to continue as CJN with the litany of allegations bordering on misconduct.

The NJC — which handles disciplinary issues of judicial officers — sat under the interim leadership of Umaru Abdullahi, former president of the court of appeal, who acted in place of the suspended CJN.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) earlier in the week sent a “final address” to the National Judicial Council (NJC) over allegations of “financial impropriety, infidelity to the constitution and other economic and financial crimes related laws” against Walter Onnoghen, the chief justice of Nigeria (CJN).

In the final address prepared by Ekele Iheanacho and Rotimi Oyedepo Iseoluwa, counsel to EFCC, the commission urged the NJC to declare that Onnoghen has breached various laws.

Some of the key allegations against Onnoghen, as listed by the EFCC, are…

-Breach of the constitution by failing to declare his assets from 1989, when he was appointed a judicial officer, to 2016, when he became the CJN
–Being in possession of funds which are fairly not attributable to his known, provable and legitimate source of income
–Deposits of up to $1,716,000.00 in his domiciliary account whose sources he cannot account for
–‘pecuniary’ gifts paid into his account by lawyers.

The council also concluded that Tanko Muhammad did not commit any offence by making himself available to be sworn in as acting CJN without the recommendation of the NJC.

These recommendations have been passed to President Muhammadu Buhari for approval, Soji Oye, the council’s director of information, informed the media on Wednesday, although he did not make the details public.

With additional report from TheCable