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Tayo Olanipekun
The suspension of Justice Walter Onnoghen as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) few days before the 2019 general elections is like the arrest of a thief on Christmas or Salah Day, the Presidency has said.
Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Sheu, by means of an analogy, explained on Sunday night in Abuja that police will not fail in their duty to arrest a thief because a city is celebrating or will celebrate an important festivity the following day.
The government’s spokesperson while featuring on a Channels TV program, Politics Today, was reacting to the condemnation by the public and the international communities of the suspension of Justice Onoghen by the Presidency for an alleged non declaration of assets.
“Police can arrest a thief on Christmas or Sallah Day or on a Sunday. No holy day for arrest,” Sheuh said as he added that the suspended justice had made an “admission of wrongdoing” making any further investigation “unwarranted.”
This is as a legal expert, Femi Falana (SAN), said on the same program that the Presidency should withdraw the suspension of Justice Onnoghen and at the same time urged the embattled justice to resign honorably.
Countries including the United States of America, United Kingdom and the European Union as well as the leading opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and members of the public have expressed concern over the impasse the issue has created between the executive and judiciary at a critical time in the nation’s polity.
“Do we ask Onoghen to return to the Supreme Court for him to later jail someone for not declaring his or her assets,” Sheuh queried while asked what the government would do in reaction to the criticism.
He said the government is not concerned about niceties or how to do things but rather, “doing the right thing.”
Sheuh, however, said the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is not dictatorial as claimed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo because the government has not queried or arrested people and organizations that have called for uprising against the President.
“Even, newspapers have in their opinions called for the end of his government and nobody has been arrested,” he said.
