Onnoghen’s appeal: Govt considering amicable resolution, says FG lawyer

The Federal Government is considering an out-of-court settlement in the appeal filed by a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, to challenge his removal from office in 2019.

The counsel for the Federal Government, Tijani Gazali (SAN), disclosed this on Tuesday while seeking an adjournment for the hearing of the appeal.

Onnoghen was removed from office in 2019 by the Code of Conduct Tribunal, which convicted him of failure to declare his assets as a public official.

The Danladi Umar-led CCT also ordered the forfeiture of Onnoghen’s five bank accounts.

Displeased with the CCT verdict, Onnoghen had appealed shortly thereafter, but his case was only listed for hearing this year.

On Monday, the appellate court said the matter would come up for hearing on Tuesday.

But when the case was called on Tuesday, the Federal Government’s lawyer, Gazali, appealed to the three-man panel, led by Justice C. I. Jombo Ofo, to further adjourn the matter as the Federal Government was not in the possession of all the documents relating to the matter.

Gazali explained that the trial of ex-CJN was contracted to a Kano-based private lawyer, Aliyu Umar (SAN), and he was in charge of the prosecution of the case from the beginning to the end.

He added that the private lawyer passed on four years ago, and not a single paper in connection with the trial and conviction of Justice Onnoghen was with the Federal Ministry of Justice.

Gazali appealed to the court to grant an adjournment to enable the government to approach the chambers of the late private lawyer to retrieve all necessary documents to respond to the appeal.

He also gave the hint that the Federal Government was considering an out-of-court settlement of the matter.

“The matter is being looked into from another perspective with a view to working out an amicable resolution of issues in dispute by the new Attorney General of the Federation,” Gazali said.

Justice Onnoghen’s counsel, Chris Uche (SAN), however, noted that some documents were actually served on the AGF office, which was acknowledged.

He appealed to the court to allow him to move an application for an accelerated hearing, which was granted upon no objections from the Federal Government’s lawyer.

After listening to the parties, Justice Ofo adjourned till September 19 for the hearing of the appeal.

The PUNCH reports that Onnoghen was physically present in court on Tuesday.

The former CJN was prosecuted in 2019 by the Federal Government on charges bordering on false asset declaration.