The forefront leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, has condemned the planned arraignment of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT)
Reports are all over town that Nigerian government will on Monday, January 14, 2019, arraign the CJN before the Justice Danladi Yakubu-led Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) in Abuja on charges of failure to declare his assets as required by law and for operating Bank Domiciliary Foreign Currency Accounts.
The criminal charges against Justice Onnoghen were filed and served on him last Friday at his official residence in Abuja in anticipation of his appearance at the tribunal.
But, responding to the saga, Chief Clark, in an interview with Daily Trust, described the move by Buhari and APC as an attempt to rig the forth coming general elections.
According to him, the South South people will resist the move against the CJN, because the game plan of the Buhari administration is to sack Justice Onnoghen and get a flexible CJN that will pander to the whims of the government.
He said “The news of the arraignment of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen before the Code of Conduct tribunal (CCT) on Monday has come to us as a shock because there is nothing to show that this man has not been doing his job properly.
“There is nothing to show that he is corrupt; simply because they want to rig this election, they want to remove him to put somebody who will do their bidding after the election; otherwise, there is no basis for harassing the judiciary,” he noted.
“Yesterday, it was the Acting Director General of the Department of State Security Services (DSS), Matthew Seyeifa who was removed and somebody who was retired was appointed to take his place.”
“We deserve some respect. So, we will resist this one, and I understand that our governors had meeting on this matter too and we will all come together.”
“The Niger Delta region would resist the arraignment of Justice Onnoghen.”