The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC),\u00a0Adams Oshiomhole has declared that it would not allow foreign countries to interfere in the internal affairs of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Oshiomhole was reacting to the\u00a0coordinated statements by the United States of America (US), United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU)\u00a0on the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen.<\/p>\n
Speaking with State House correspondents on Monday night after President Muhammadu Buhari had dinner with APC senators, he said: \u201cThe thing is that Nigeria is not a colony. I think we all have to be careful. We must defend the sovereignty of our country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe welcome collaboration, we welcome peer review, we can compare notes, we welcome people who are interested in sharing experiences with us whenever the need arises, whether it\u2019s capacity building, making useful suggestions on how we can continue to improve on our electoral process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are very valuable contributions that we appreciate.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Nigeria is not a colony. We will not accept any foreign interference in the internal affairs of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they dismiss judges in Europe\u2026judges have been dismissed in the United States when they are found guilty of corruption and the Western world cannot on the one hand, when it suits them, describe Nigeria as fantastically corrupt and when a corrupt judicial officer is being charged, people want to interfere.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat anybody can insist on is, is anybody being framed? Is the suspended CJN guilty of the allegations made against him? Or is it something being cooked out from nowhere?<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, if a Chief Justice of the Federation admits that he has breached the law, if a Chief Justice of the Federation admits that he has several foreign domiciliary accounts, even though he also admits that by nature of his office, he is not s trader, what is he doing with accounts in British pounds, US dollars and in Euros and to the extent of forgetting that he has those accounts?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he has such memory failure about the size of his number of accounts as to fail to declare them, you and I know that even ignorance is not an excuse in law. So, why are we being hypocritical?<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd at a certain level of responsibility, it\u2019s not even about legal technicalities. It\u2019s about the moral weight, the moral burden you carry.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, nobody should make us feel as though we are at the mercy of any other country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe future of Nigeria is in the hands of Nigerians and our laws are clear. Our laws are meant to be obeyed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Oshiomhole added \u201cIf Nigerians thought that anybody other than the president and the vice president or a governor and deputy governor have immunity, it should have been so written into the constitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t understand what the noise is about.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people say even if it is true, is this the proper timing? What is the best timing to prosecute a crime? Should we suspend criminal justice pending elections?<\/p>\n
\u201cThen, some people say you know, because of the very unique role or rather, very delicate role the judiciary has to play in settling elections issues, that is the more reason that people are worried about the timing.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy question is, given that important role of the judiciary in times like this, is that the reason why you should allow a judge who has professed for breaching laws of the land, is that the reason to allow him to preside, to adjudicate over issues that have to do with fairness and justice?\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC),\u00a0Adams Oshiomhole has declared that it would not allow foreign countries to interfere in the internal affairs of Nigeria. Oshiomhole was reacting to the\u00a0coordinated statements by the United States of America (US), United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU)\u00a0on the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,29,28,14],"tags":[34,173,226,177],"class_list":["post-3507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-apc","tag-parties","tag-policy","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n