By Chidiebere Nwobodo
I was flabbergasted and outraged after reading the reports emanating from the CCT trial of CJN Walter Onnoghen—I deliberately omitted the word “suspended” because he remains the Chief Justice of Nigeria in the eyes of the law; until CONSTITUTIONALLY removed from office. I was astonished at the emptiness of the prosecuting (persecuting) counsel. The three prosecuting witnesses called out of the six penciled down to testify, actually exonerated the accused—going by their testimonies; to uttermost chagrin of most Nigerians. The castle of satanic propaganda built against the nation’s number one judicial officer in the last few months by the APC’s sponsored ideologically perverted spin-doctors and morally bankrupt hirelings, was dynamited in less than ninety minutes. The volcanic mountain of falsehood constructed against this judicial veteran, erupted in the face of incontrovertible truths embodied in facts presented. It became crystal clear again that the lifespan of a propaganda is shorter than falsehood.
The litany of false narratives planted in the media began crumbling like pack of cards. The so-called 55 houses allegedly owned by Justice Walter Onnoghen suddenly fell to 5—one house out of the five was given to him by the government—making it four properties acquired through his hard-earned money. Millions of dollars and billions of naira shameless propagandists and online urchins of this government told the whole world that CJN Onnoghen had in his accounts, melted into thousands of dollars. It metamorphosed into figment of imagination borne out of hallucination. It was established right there in full public glare that he operates domiciliary accounts in Nigeria not “foreign”, as was propagated by conscienceless men and women of perfidy in the APC. Even the assets declaration forms were confirmed unverified as at the time the charges was filed. And this was confessed by no other person than an ex-director of Code of Conduct Bureau; who worked in the bureau for 29 nine consecutive years!
While these puzzling and thought-provoking revelations were being unraveled at the CCT, social media rabble-rousers and demented e-rats who ignobly pervades cyberspace cluelessly, to defend indefensible actions of Buhari’s government, crawled into their holes. They went into sleep mode—mute was the word. Some prejudiced propagandistic media platforms of the APC like Nation newspapers, Saharareporters.com, Channels TV that conspired actively with tyrants in power to eviscerate judicial independence, by dehumanizing Nigeria’s Chief Justice in the media, played ostrich. Where is Dennis Agha—the hired blackmailer; the hungry pawn in the chess board, who was used to bring opprobrium on the CJN? What thoughts will be racing in his mind at this juncture? Now that their lies and outright fabrications against this man have been mercilessly punctured and exposed, can Tinubu’s mouthpiece called Nation newspaper bury its head in shame for publishing satanic lies against Justice Onnoghen, just to wreck Nigerian judiciary and annex its independence?
In the foregoing context, will highly corrupted merchant of fake news cum blackmail called Saharareporters.com tender unreserved apology to CJN Onnoghen for maligning his character and attempting to destroy his impeccable credibility? What are they still waiting for to make a profound apology to Nigerians for misleading them into believing that Justice Walter Onnoghen “owned” fictitious assets? Where are all these paid protesters who disturbed the peace of Abuja in their infamous Onnoghen-must-go charade? The morally bereft intellectual buffoons who went on national TVs to defend desecration of the country’s temple of justice have all shamefully gone into hiding; albeit disgracefully—they have changed the narrative to hide their deep-seated sadism and insufferably hypocrisy. Where are those ethno-religious zealots whose real offense against CJN Onnoghen was based on his tribal affiliation?
It has been reaffirmed that President Buhari is not fighting corruption but on vendetta mission. No one will doubt again that CJN Onnoghen was illegally suspended to weaken judicial independence, in order to compromise the bench ahead of the election petitions emanating from brazenly rigged 2019 elections. It was a script acted by enemies of democracy. Those who still believe that Buhari is fighting corruption can be awarded the crowns of the most gullible and naive creatures of 21st century. The NJC should step in now to restore the dignity of the judiciary by reinstating Justice Walter Onnoghen to continue his job as Chief Justice of Nigeria and sanction those who collaborated with the despots to benefit from Onnoghen’s travails. Its silence is no longer golden. The judicial regulatory body must assert its independence now; or lose it forever.
The persecution of CJN Onnoghen exposed the PDP as a weakling in opposition politics. The party is an ineffectual opposition—I am making this assertion with every sense of responsibility. The PDP failed in its responsibilities to rally around the CJN by countering the APC’s venomous propaganda against Justice Onnoghen in the media. I am still awed that all these facts have been there all this while, and the PDP media team and Atiku’s campaign allowed the APC to run down Nigeria’s apex judicial officer, knowing fully well that the fight was targeted at Atiku Abubakar’s envisaged post-election petition. By conservative nature of judges, especially someone who has paid his dues in the system, I never expected Justice Walter Onnoghen to engage ferocious BMC and its offshoot soldiers in the media. It was the job of the opposition whose interest was (is) stake.
I was disappointed that the same opposition that benefited from judicial independence—made possible by Onnoghen’s uncompromising stand, could not defend the man in the media despite all the glaring evidence that he is being persecuted for upholding rule of law, which made it possible for the PDP to breathe today. The PDP would have been dead and buried during Ali Modu Sheriff legal onslaught against the party, if not that Supreme Court under Justice Walter Onnoghen defended the constitution and upheld rule of law. The same CJN Onnoghen killed the perceived tyrannical agenda of the Presidency to annex National Assembly by removing Bukola Saraki as senate president. Saraki’s victory in his assets declaration case at Supreme Court strengthened the legislative independence and entrenched principles of separation of powers.
Unfortunately, when the “Nazist” cabal came for Onnoghen, neither the Legislature nor the opposition was there for him. CJN Onnoghen was left in the cold. The APC propagandists took advantage of the PDP almost non-existent media machinery to paint Onnoghen as “corrupt”, gave him jungle justice in the court of public opinion and hoodwink gullible Nigerians into believing that Buhari is fighting corruption. The overwhelming propaganda of the APC against him in the media, without the PDP’s counter narrative, provided the much-needed smokescreen to unconstitutionally suspend him. The PDP—the party that had something at stake, outsourced the fight to already fractured Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). Anyone who participated overtly or covertly in Onnoghen’s travails, will be wrongly accused, humiliated and disgraced in the future. Karma is a bitch. Posterity doesn’t suffer amnesia—it remembers.
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