Why Buhari Has No Right To Reject Onnoghen’s Resignation – Lawyer

President Muhammadu Buhari has no constitutional right to
reject the resignation of Walter Onnoghen, former Chief Justice of
Nigeria, a legal practitioner, Inibehe Effiong has said.

Mr
Onnoghen who was suspended by the president, stepped down from his
position last week in a resignation letter he wrote to Mr Buhari.

The
top jurist convicted on Thursday was accused of not declaring some
assets traced to him. Delivering its judgement, the Code of Conduct
Tribunal (CCT) where he was arraigned claimed to have jurisdiction over
the matter against its earlier claim of otherwise in another case
involving the Federal Government and Justice Ngwuta.

The CCT
under the chairmanship of Danladi Umar, sacked and banned Onnoghen from
holding any public office in the country until after a period of 10
years.

Although the jurist resigned before the judgement was
given, Some Nigerians are of the opinion that the president has the
right to reject the resignation letter of the jurist thereby denying him
of his entitlements after leaving office.

Similarly some reports
in the media said State governors from the South South region, where
the top jurist hail from, were pleading with Mr Buhari to accept the
resignation letter on the basis of a soft landing for their ‘son.’

But
accessing the claim, Mr Effiong in an interview aired on Arise
Television at the weekend said Buhari has no constitutional rights to
reject any resignation letter addressed to him once his office is the
appointing authority.

He argued that the resignation of anyone
appointed by the office of the president takes effect whenever the
authority involved takes delivery of the epistle.

Effiong said if
the office of the president has acknowledged to have received such
letter, there is no need contemplating whether the head of the executive
arm of government has right to reject it because the resignation has
already taken effect.

“I want to first correct the perception in
the public domain that the president has the discretion to accept or
reject his (Onnoghen) resignation letter,” the lawyer said.

“That
is wrong, it is unsubstantiated, it is untenable in law because by
virtue of Section 306 of the (Nigerian) constitution, resignation takes
effect when the notice of resignation is received by the appointing
authority.

“The moment Onnoghen submitted his letter, he has
resigned,” Effiong said while admitting that the jurist should have
taken the bold step earlier when the allegation against him was made
public.

A perusal of the constitution by POLITICS TIMES showed
the lawyer is right with his submission. Subsection 2 of Section 306 of
the Nigerian Constitution says, “The resignation of any person from any
office established by this Constitution shall take effect when the
writing signifying the resignation is received by the authority or
person to whom it is addressed or by any person authorised by that
authority or person to receive it.”

Effiong also lashed out at the CCT over the manner with which the tribunal became a judge in its own case.

He
said a petition filed by Onnoghen at the appellate court challenging
the jurisdiction of the tribunal to try him without recourse to the
National Judicial Council (NJC) was yet to be decided but the CCT went
on to rule it had jurisdiction after acknowledging the petition at the
higher court.

Source:- Politicstimesng