S’Court dismisses Cross River’s suit challenging Onnoghen’s suspension

The Supreme Court in a split decision of six to one on Friday dismissed the suit filed by the Cross River state government challenging the suspension and trial of former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, for being incompetent.

But in her dissenting judgment, Justice Mary Peter-Odili, granted all the reliefs sought by the plaintiff after holding that it has the locus standi to institute the action.

In her dissenting judgement, however, Justice Odilli held that the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) lacked the jurisdiction to adjudicate on the criminal charge against Onnoghen.

She held that as a judicial officer, the matter ought to have been handled by the National Judicial Council (NJC) first as in Nganjiwa Vs Federal Republic of Nigeria (2017).

Cross River state had in a suit marked SC/145/2019 filed by its attorney-general challenged the suspension and trial of Justice Onnoghen at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

The state equally asked the apex court to quash the charge against Onnoghen, who is an indigene of the state.

But in a majority judgement, six out of the seven justices of the court on the panel held that the plaintiff lacked the requisite locus standi to institute the suit.

On his part, counsel to the defendants and the Solicitor-General of the Federation, Dayo Akpata, argued his notice of preliminary objection in urging the court to dismiss the suit on the ground that the plaintiff lacked the locus standi to institute the action.

In a notice of preliminary objections filed by Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, the federal government further challenged the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the matter on the grounds that “there is no dispute between the defendants in this suit and the plaintiff as envisaged under Section 232(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).”

Besides, Akpata informed the apex court that the subject matter of the suit was already before the Court of Appeal which had reserved judgement.

Regardless, the plaintiff counsel, Locius Nwosu, insisted that the case of his client “is different from the appeal filed by Justice Onnoghen at the Court of Appeal.”

Leave a Reply