Alhaja Sinatu Ojikutu, a former Deputy-Governor of Lagos State, in this interview, defends the suspension of CJN Walter Onnoghen by President Muhammadu Buhari.
What is your reaction to the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, by President Muhammadu Buhari over alleged undeclared assets?
The suspension is a right step in the right direction. Buhari’s action is commendable. Considering the fact that Onnoghen has not denied the allegations against him, he should have stepped aside instead of waiting to be suspended. His trial has become embarrassing to the judiciary and Nigeria as a nation.
Has Onnoghen denied the allegations of running foreign accounts? What he is doing now by dragging the nation through his trial is not right.
For those who are coming to Onnoghen side, some of them perhaps also have skeletons in their cupboards and they believe that if this can happen to Onnoghen it can also happen to them.
If it had been in a saner clime, Onnoghen would not have waited to be asked to step aside before he would have done the needful by quitting his position.
The right step has been taken by taking the CJN to court.
Onnoghen should face trial, he has questions to answer. For those defending him, they should hide their face in shame. It is a pity that Nigeria has become a place where people don’t know what is right from what is wrong anymore. It is like anything goes now as long as you can bamboozle your way through, and that is what apologists of Onnoghen are doing.
But some Nigerians are saying that Onnoghen is being persecuted …
There is no persecution in this. That some people could come to Onnoghen’s side shows the level of the rot in our system. It shows how bad the situation in Nigeria has become.
How do you think the issue should be resolved?
There should be no emotion on this case. Onnoghen should fac trial. Government should not look back, government has taken the right step by arraigning Onnoghen. He should face trial, he has questions to answer.
For those who are defending Onnoghen, they should hide their faces in shame. It is a pity that Nigeria has become a place where people don’t know what is right from what is wrong anymore. I’m also surprised by the action of those defending Onnoghen, especially the lawyers. Are they afraid that if proper investigations are carried out that it may lead to some of them being indicted? Do they have something to hide?
What’s your take on the letter recently written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to President Buhari accusing him of behaving like the late military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha?
Maybe Obasanjo is one of those who believe that we can’t have a revolution in this country. There are some things that require hard handling. Our system has become so bastardised that there are some things that have to be corrected; so if Obasanjo says Buhari is behaving like Abacha, the question we should then ask is this, is Buhari behaving like Abacha in a negative or positive way?
Abacha was not doing things to correct a bad situation, he was spoiling the system but Buhari is laying a foundation to correct the anomalies in the system. Buhari is trying to correct things that have gone wrong.
