Alleged False Assets Declaration: Onnoghen To Call CCB Director As Witness

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The Code of Conduct Tribunal has resumed sitting in the trial of Justice Walter Onnoghen for alleged non-declaration of assets.

The
tribunal had on Friday dismissed Justice Onnoghen’s no-case submission,
insisting he had a case to answer and ordered him to open his defence
on Monday.

At the resumed sitting, Justice Onnoghen’s
counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo, said the proceedings from Friday’s hearing
had not been made available to the defence.

He requested that a
witness, Miss Theresa Nwafor of the Code of Conduct Bureau should be
subpoenaed to appear as a witness for the CJN.

READ ALSO: No-Case Submission: Onnoghen Files Notice Of Appeal Against CCT Ruling

The witness is the Director of the CCB in Benin.

Mr
Awomolo also informed the chairman that he ought to rule on his
application before any other thing, a position the prosecution counsel
did not object to.

In his ruling, the chairman of the tribunal granted the request and ordered her to be at the tribunal on Wednesday by 10 am.

Meanwhile, a second witness Lawal Busari had taken the witness stand on behalf of Justice Onnoghen.

The witness, a staff member of the Supreme Court, told the tribunal he is a driver to the CJN.

He
further narrated to the tribunal how he was sent by the CJN to collect
the asset declaration form on his behalf and that the CCB gave him a
receipt to that effect.

When the counsel to the CJN sought to tender the said receipt, the prosecution objected to the move.

The tribunal, however, admitted the receipt.

Continuing
with his testimony, the witness said he submitted the forms at the CCB
after the CJN had filled it. The witness said he filled his own form and
was issued a receipt as well.

Again, when the defence counsel
attempted to tender the receipt of the witness, the move was objected to
by the prosecutor who said it was not relevant to the case.

The
defence counsel insisted that the action of the witness is relevant to
the case of the CJN, but the chairman of the Tribunal agreed with the
prosecutor and rejected the receipt.

Under cross-examination, the
prosecutor asked the witness why he was looking at a small white paper
during his testimony in-chief. The witness replied that he wasn’t
looking at any paper.

He was now asked if he wrote on the paper
and if the paper contained facts which he gave evidence on. The witness
said what was written on the paper was about himself.

The defence counsel did not object to the admissibility of the piece of paper as evidence.

Source:- Channelstv

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