Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has again asked the Federal Government to withdraw the criminal charges filed against Justice Walter Onnoghen at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria made the call in a letter addressed to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, on Sunday.
He asked the minister to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to reverse the suspension as it is wrong for a public officer to be removed from office on the basis of an ex parte order granted by any court or tribunal in Nigeria.
FALANA SAID GIS request IS anchored on the case of Elelu-Habeeb vs the Attorney-General of 2012 where the Supreme Court held that by virtue of section 292 of the Constitution of Nigeria, the head of any of the judicial arm of state and federal governments cannot be removed from office without a prior investigation conducted by the National Judicial Council.
Falana posited that the withdrawal of the case from the Code of Conduct Tribunal would lead to the immediate vacation of the ex parte order relied upon by the president to justify the “illegal suspension” of Onnoghen and the appointment of Justice Tanko Mohammad as acting Chief Justice of Nigeria.
He said, “Even though by virtue of paragraph 10 (2) (a) of part 1 of the fifth schedule to the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the Code of Conduct Tribunal is empowered to order any public officer to vacate office, the power cannot be exercised until such a public officer has been tried and convicted for breaching the provisions of the Code of Conduct for public officers.