CCB Serves Charges On CJN Onnoghen …. Set for Arraignment Next Week

By Yakubu Lawal

The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) has served the criminal charges on false asset declaration on the person of the Chief Justice of Nigeria Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen preparatory for his arraignment on January 22, 2019 at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

However, the Tribunal will have to contend with orders of a Federal High Court and National Industrial Court both in Abuja which restrained it from proceeding with the arraignment of CJN pending the determination of two different suits before them.

However, a highly dependable source told  PRNigeria that the order of the two courts may not be binding on the tribunal because they are courts of coordinate jurisdiction which by law have equal powers.

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The charges were served personally on the CJN on Monday 14, January 2018 by 3.30pm in his office at the Supreme Court of Nigeria Abuja. The sourced confirmed to the PRNigeria that Justice Onnogen personally received the charges and signed for it, a condition required before he could be properly arraigned at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

With the endorsement of the service of the charge sighted by PRNigeria, the coast is clear for the Federal Government to formally arraigned Justice Onnoghen on January 22, 2019 before Justice Danladi Yakubu Umar led-tribunal.

The CJN was billed to be arraigned on Monday, January 14, but he was however absent on the ground that the condition precedent for his appearance had not been lawfully met by the prosecution.