A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mba Ekpezu Ukweni SAN, has advised the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed to shun tribalism and ethnicity and adhere to oaths of the office.<\/p>\n
Speaking in an exclusive interview\u00a0 on Saturday, he said \u201cThe Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria is the most senior Justice of the Supreme Court and until President appoints a new person, let him lead the Judiciary properly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Justices have their oaths of office, let him follow the oaths of office and work in accordance with the tenets of the constitution and shun tribalism and ethnicity\u201d<\/p>\n
On the resignation of suspended CJN, Walter Onnoghen, Mba Ukweni said, \u201cOnnoghen was serving Nigerians, even though at the helms of affairs of Judiciary but it was a service to the entire country, so I don\u2019t see his resignation or voluntary retirement as anything wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the situation has reached this level where there is no more trust, the best option for him was to resign; I don\u2019t see anything wrong with that. Onnoghen\u2019s resignation was appropriate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see it to be inappropriate, I think it is appropriate because what is he doing now, since this problem started, he has not been performing his duty as the Chief Justice of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has not been performing his duty as the Justice of the Supreme Court, so why is he still there, so if he has become a major problem and he put in his resignation or voluntary retirement, so to say, to enable the system move on, I see it as a vey honourable step taken by him.\u201d<\/p>\n
On whether it was too late for the erstwhile CJN to have thrown in the towel, Ukweni pointed out that it was not too late for him to resign, stressing that, \u201cwhile I don\u2019t see it as being late is because, in actual fact, it is the National Judiciary Council (NJC) that has the power to investigate him, not the Code pf Conduct Bureau.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the position most of us have been maintaining, we are not saying that he is above the law but if there is a procedure that had been laid down, follow it, it cannot, be because the President is interested in one way or the other that you discard the procedure that are laid down by law for proper implementation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be so, I don\u2019t agree with that kind of thing because there are certain politicians including the President that do not want him to be there, then people feel that due process should be discarded.<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernment itself should observed due process, God\u2019s nature follow due process, so if there is no due process, even our own live can\u2019t function properly, it is my believe that what he did is not belated and nothing wrong in turning in his resignation at this stage when he might have seen certain things unfolded.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf for instance, the NJC who are his colleagues have come up with position and feel that no matter the slightest level of suspects that might have arising from all these, this is our recommendation and following that he put in his resignation, I see it as being a very honourable thing to do, how many black people put in resignation when they are in position of authority.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mba Ekpezu Ukweni SAN, has advised the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed to shun tribalism and ethnicity and adhere to oaths of the office. Speaking in an exclusive interview\u00a0 on Saturday, he said \u201cThe Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria is the most senior Justice of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":3102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,29,14],"tags":[97,69,381,304],"class_list":["post-7958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-buhari","tag-court","tag-judgment","tag-onnoghen"],"yoast_head":"\n