Nigeria’s National Judicial Council has set up a five-man committee to investigate the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen over allegations leveled against him.
The NJC’s committee is also saddled with the responsibility to investigate the acting CJN, Justice Tanko Muhammad.
The committee is to be headed by a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice S.A Akintan, who like other members of the committee, is a member of the council.
The NJC’s Director of Information, Mr. Soji Oye, said in a statement on Wednesday, that the council took the decision after accepting the result of the preliminary assessment of the petitions against the two of them.
He said the council considered the petitions to be worthy of further investigation and should not be terminated under Rule 17 of the Judicial Discipline Regulations of the Council.
“Consequently, the council constituted a five-member NJC Investigation Committee pursuant to Rule 20(1) of the Judicial Discipline Regulations.
NJC added that it received a new petition against Justice Muhammad from the Action People’s Party.
It added that the council gave the acting CJN “abridged seven days” for his “comments.”