Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki has described the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Walter Onoghen by President Muhammadu Buhari, as a coup against democracy and a deliberate attempt to endanger our hard-won democracy.
Politics NGR gathered that Saraki, in a statement personally signed by him stated
that the suspension was another act of desperation by President Buhari.
He noted that by the suspension of the CJN, Buhari has acted outside the
provision of the constitution, has exercised the powers which he does
not have and that this action amounted to gross misconduct.
“This is an action aimed at undermtining the nation’s judiciary, subverting
the constitution, intimidating judges of all the courts of record, and
creating uncertainty in the electoral process, thereby laying the
foundation for influencing the outcome of litigations that might arise
from next month’s elections.
“There are already the general belief that this hasty action was taken to pre-empt the already
scheduled inauguration of election petition tribunals by Hon. Justice
Onoghen and to destroy national institutions that are perceived to be
unco-operative in his bid to manipulate the electoral process leading to
next month’s general elections.
“By unilaterally suspending the CJN without following the provision of the constitution, President
Buhari has taken an action which amounted to gross misconduct. He has
simply sent a dangerous signal to the entire world that Nigeria is no
longer a democratic nation and that we have returned to the old, jaded
era of military dictatorship .
“Our constitution makes no provision for suspension of the nation’s highest judicial officer. The
constitution provides a clear process for removal of the CJN and specify
the roles of the three arms of government, beginning from the National
Judicial Council (NJC), the National Assembly and lastly, the
Presidency, have different roles to play in that process. There is no
condition under which the President can usurp the powers of other arms
of government. I do not know where the President and his advisers got
this idea of suspending the CJN on the so-called order of the Code of
Conduct Tribunal but this is novel, disingenuous and alien to our laws.
“The President and his team must have seen this so-called suspension as a
short-cut to getting Hon. Justice Onnoghen out of the way since the
appellate court has eventually stopped the CCT from continuing with the
trial of the CJN. It is strange that President Buhari is claiming to be
taking orders from a Tribunal which has been ordered by a superior court
to halt all actions on the trial.
“With this action, President Buhari has initiated a process the consequence of which nobody can
predict. They have precipitated a constitutional crisis.
“At this point, all democratic institutions in the country, the international
community and democrats across the world should rise against this
blatant act of impunity. We should jointly condemn this retrogressive,
uncivilized and despotic measure”, Saraki stated.
He however called on President Buhari to immediately reverse this decision and
allow the due process of law to take its natural course in determining
the guilt or otherwise as well as the suitability of Hon. Justice
Onnoghen to continue as the head of the nation’s judiciary.
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