The Federal Government and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) have asked the Supreme Court to decline jurisdiction over a suit seeking its intervention in the trial of suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).
The FG and the AGF contended that Onnoghen’ trial was personal to him and could only involve the Supreme Court, where an appeal arises from the Court of Appeal on a decision reached either during or after the trial at the CCT.
Their position is contained in a notice of objection they filed against a suit instituted at the Supreme Court by Cross River State.
The state government, in their originating summons, queried the propriety of Onnoghen’s trial before the CCT and urged the Supreme Court to declare it illegal on the grounds that it was only the National Judicial Council (NJC) that could exercise disciplinary powers over a serving judge.
Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, who presided over a seven-man panel of the court, adjourned to February 28 for the hearing of the defendants’ objection along with the substantive suit.
