Onnoghen: Buhari creating judicial anarchy – Uwazurike

By OBINNA EZUGWU

Lawyer and president emeritus of Aka Ikenga, Chief Goddy Uwazurike has condemned the “unconstitutional” removal of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Nkanu Onnoghen by President Muhammadu Buhari, describing the president’s action as “judicial anarchy”

Chief Uwazurike who stated this in a statement on Friday, warned that Buhari is out to cause constitutional crisis in the country, while calling on Nigerians to resist the move.

“President Muhamadu Buhari, in suspending the Chief Justice of Nigeria, has thrown Nigeria into a constitutional crisis,” Uwazurike said.

“President Buhari placed his hand the Holy Koran and swore to uphold the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That was on May 29, 2015. Since then, he spent 3 years seeking to sack the President of the Senate. He is using this last year to sack the Chief Justice of Nigeria. This is nothing but throwing the country into a crisis.

“What happened today in Aso Rock is nothing short of creating a judicial anarchy. Rotimi Amaechi, as governor of Rivers state caused such a disaster for the judicial arm in the state. Today, President Muhamadu Buhari, who as a military dictator, removed the the then Chief Justice, Sowemimo, has embarrassed the 3rd arm of the government.

“Remember that under our constitution, the method by which the heads of the 3 arms emerge are clearly stated. Ditto the way their stay can be tampered with. Any other method is clearly unconstitutional. The chief justice of Nigeria can only emerge and be removed in accordance with the constitution. Now, who will preside over the judicial arm on Monday?

“Do not forget that the President relied on a non existing order of the Code of Conduct Tribunal. Besides, there are about 4 orders of different courts directing that nothing be done to tamper with the post of the chief justice of Nigeria. The executive is part of the court cases.

“Save our judiciary. The executive has said that it will not obey all court orders. Now u can understand the objective of the orchestrated media trial of the Chief Justice. This is climax of the campaign. Are we still practising democracy?”

President Buhari had on Friday, suspended Onnoghen as CJN and replaced him with Justice Tanko Mohammed, a Sharia Court Judge from Bauchi State, but it’s an action that has continued to generate outrage.
It has drawn condemnations from the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, Senator Shehu Sani, among others.