There are indications that the National Judicial Commission (NJC) may have recommended the retirement of suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen and the ratification of Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed as substantive CJN.
It was learned over the weekend that the retirement of Onnoghen and retention of Muhammed as CJN are the NJC’s last-ditch effort to save the Judiciary from dangers posed by threats of corruption, compromise thereby bringing to an end the impasse in the arm of government following President Muhammadu Buhari’s hammer on the embattled CJN.
The NJC, which had given Onnoghen and Justice Muhammed seven days ultimatum to answer to petitions against them, was to meeting Monday to ratify its recommendation on the CJN suspension saga.
By implication, the recommendation, if ratified, would mean double punishment for Onnoghen as he would have been dumped by the apex council of judiciary arm in his effort to evade trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) and will lose his job prematurely as a result of corruption and compromise of justice that Judiciary suffered under his administration as chief law officer of the country.
A competent source revealed that the NJC resolved that the suspended CJN should retire, in the face of the allegations against him.
On the reason for wanting Justice Muhammad to continue in substantive status as the CJN, the source said the NJC took the decision based on its view that he had not committed any offence or breached any rule.
“He presented himself for swearing in based on a court order (CCT). He couldn’t have disobeyed a court order, which the president also relied on,” the source said.
The retention of Justice Muhammed will dash the hopes of some powerful forces in the South West, which had anticipated that the next most senior justice of the Supreme Court from the zone will be a beneficiary of the impasse, in the event of the retirement of Onnoghen and Muhammed.
Recommendation for Onnoghen’s retirement and retention of Muhammed are contrary to expectations of some lawyers who had canvassed that both justices ought to go to ensure clean slate in the impasse, although most of the lawyers, senior ones among them, are said to be long time beneficiaries of the bad system in the country’s judiciary.
It will be the first time in the history of Nigeria that a President would not look at the usual political constraints, especially in few days to elections, in his resolve to move strongly against suspected agents of corruption dragging Nigeria’s name in the mud in the eyes of the globe.
