Suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, has asked the Court of Appeal, Abuja to quash the judgment of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) that convicted him of charges of false assets declaration.
Onnoghen in his appeal filed Thursday against the judgement of the tribunal is also praying the appellate court to set aside the order of forfeiture of his assets to the federal government made by the CCT.
The CCT on Thursday convicted Justice Walter Onnoghen on all six count charge of false assets declaration preffered against him by the federal government.
The three man panel of the tribunal in a judgment delivered by the chairman, Danladi Umar, held that from the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses and the statement of Onnoghen admitting that he made a mistake of not declaring his five accounts with the Standard Chartered Bank, the tribunal came to the conclusion that Onnoghen was guilty as charged.
The CCT having convicted Onnoghen of the charges went ahead to remove Onnoghen as Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC).
Onnoghen however in the appeal filed on his behalf by his lead counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo SAN, is challenging the decision of the tribunal on grounds that the tribunal erred in law when it convicted him of all the six count charge.
According to Awomolo, the CCT erred in law when it dismissed Onnoghen’s application challenging the jurisdiction of the tribunal to hear the matter and thus occasioned a grave miscarriage of justice.
