The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that the Code of Conduct Tribunal acted within its powers when it ordered the suspension of justice Onnoghen an order President Buhari acted upon to effect his suspension and appointment of Tanko Mohammed as the acting CJN.
The Minister spoke yesterday, at a press conference to address the controversy that has been generated by the removal of the CJN. He noted that since the suspension,” there have been widespread reactions from within and outside the country. In particular, the opposition has latched on to it, threatening fire and brimstone and concocting all sorts of imaginary scenarios and generally muddying the waters. In what I will call the theater of the absurd, the main opposition party, the PDP, even suspended its electioneering campaign for 72 hours!”
The minister said that the purpose of the press conference was to “set the records straight and redirect the discourse”. He said that contrary to what the opposition has been saying, the suspension of Onnoghen was not about the forthcoming elections, neither does the suspension of the CJN signal the beginning of dictatorship. President Buhari he said is an avowed Democrat, with a firm commitment to the rule of law.
The minister also took a swipe at a section of the media which he said has taken sides “a section of the media has taken sides. Several newspapers have written editorials on this issue. Some newspapers have employed rather crude and obnoxious language to push forth their opinions, while others have been more tempered. But curiously, none has written from a perspective that shows that they understand the big picture”
He noted that the entire issue is about the country’s highest judicial officer, accused of a breach of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers “Justice Onnoghen has been given the opportunity of fair hearing, but he has been abusing his position and the judicial process by filing frivolous applications and even dodging service of process”.
Citing several extant court judgments he noted that Justice Onnoghen had in the past ruled on some of these issues which empowers the CCT to issue the suspension order.
Lai observed that the threat of mass action by some groups will not undermine the course of justice saying that more Nigerians were in support of the government’s action than those that were opposed to it.
