Asiwaju Tinubu Reacts to Atiku’s Stand on CJN Onnoghen

The national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu has berated the Presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar for condemning the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen.

He said:

“Strange that you would choose to depict the current situation so inaccurately as to stir emotions unduly. You claim that CJN Onnoghen has been removed. However, this is not so. He has been temporarily suspended. You and your advisors should know and recognise the vast legal difference between “suspension” and “removal”.

“Yet, you persist in conflating the two in what you say is a pursuit of justice. While true you may be in pursuit of something. It is not justice.

“If justice was your goal, you would acknowledge that the CJN has only been temporarily suspended, not permanently removed. Thus, your recourse to saying that the president violated the constitutional provision regarding the removal of a CJN is inaccurate in that Buhari never intended to remove the CJN.

“What he has done is to have the CJN temporarily get out of his chair so that the serious matters against him can be heard by someone other than himself. Should the charges show themselves to be wrong or unproven, the CJN will be automatically reinstated as the head of the Nigerian judiciary.

“However, for Atiku to state that the CJN should remain on seat while credible and grave charges swirl around him is to put the entire workings of the Supreme Court under a heavy cloud.”

In Tinubu’s view, President Buhari has handled the Justice Onnoghen crisis with restraint, balancing the public concern about the integrity of the judiciary with the concern about the rights of the chief justice.

He said:

“It is ironic that Atiku of all people throw such darts at President Buhari. Buhari actually exercised considerable restraint in this matter. He has reasonably balanced concerns about the integrity of the judiciary with concerns for the individual rights of the accused. Nothing has been taken from the CJN that cannot be restored, if the facts warrant such restoration.

“Thus, President Buhari conditionally suspended the CJN. By doing so, this allows for the case to move forward without the CCT or others fearing the CJN might use his position to unduly interfere with proceedings. If the CJN is exonerated, then he will return to his position. If not exonerated, then a more permanent discipline awaits him.”

Tinubu said the President opted for a balanced approach, following the realisation that the constitution does not provide clear and unambiguous guidance on a sensitive matter where the chief justice is the defendant.

He said while Atiku railed against President Buhari because he showed restraint, it is doubtful if he and Obasanjo would have demonstrated tact if they were faced with a similar situation while in power.

Tinubu said Obasanjo and Atiku

“would have put Onnoghen in the stocks or shipped him off to that infamous farm in Ota where he would have begun his new career in plucking poultry.”

He added:

“It is curious that Atiku would take up the marker of a jurist who has enjoyed the sweet but hidden benefits of several million dollars of mystery money passing through his secret bank accounts, Even when discovered, these accounts held several hundred thousands of dollars in them.

“Someone in Atiku’s position would normally be wary of a judge thusly tainted. A politician in Atiku’s position should more objectively be concerned that the government would have been the source of the hidden funds or that government would use the fact of the clandestine money as leverage against the judge to make sure he did government’s bidding for surely this is a jurist highly compromised by pecuniary indiscretion.

“It is almost unnatural that an opposition candidate would champion the soiled cause of such a judge who seems to have sold something in exchange for the money found in his vest’s secret pockets.

“Yet, Atiku now cries the anguished cry of a man who thought he had won the lottery only to find he had misread the last number on his claim ticket. Or perhaps these are the tears of a man who thought he had invested in a sure deal only to see the reason for the investment evaporate before his very eyes.

“Now, Atiku and his cohort seek to turn their personal disappointment into a burning national issue. They seek to manufacture a constitutional crisis where none exists.”

Tinubu enjoined Atiku and PDP to ponder on the logic of campaign suspension and juxtapose it with the suspension of the chief justice, maintaining that suspension and removal are not the same thing.

He said:

“They said they suspended their campaign because of this matter. Here, they are as illogical as illogic can beget. By suspending their campaign, did that mean they were permanently ending it?  Of course not! That would be a boycott or the permanent “removal” of the campaign. No, they have resumed their campaign after temporarily suspending it.

“If they know the meaning of suspension in this regard, only malign intent allows them to feign ignorance to the meaning of the word “suspend” when applied to CJN Onnoghen.

“There is no need to quake at the solitary incident of the interim suspension of a justice pending the legal resolution of serious criminal claims against him. If this matter is shorn of the political trappings it has acquired, there is no fairer way to handle the matter.”

Tinubu wondered whether Atiku would have left Justice Onnoghen alone in the face of the grave allegations if he is president.

He said:

“Atiku, I gather, would rather leave the man in the seat and allow the charges against him to go unattended. Or Atiku would rather that the CJN preside over his own trial. Such is the logical conclusion of Atiku’s position.

“It is odd bravery that would lead Atiku to stake such a position. If Atiku is as oddly courageous as he now depicts, then let him venture a step further.

“Let Atiku tell us what good and the precious thing he and the PDP rendered that they cannot even countenance the temporary and conditional suspension of a single jurist until the charges of illegality against the man have been fully resolved in open proceedings conducted by his judicial peers.”

www.sojworld.com (c) January 30, 2019