DESPITE what critics have described as persecution, embattled Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen on Tuesday were among top government functionaries who attended the 2019 Armed Forces Remembrance Day.
The CJN, who dressed in a black suit at the at the National Arcade in the Three Arms Zone in Abuja, venue of wreath laying ceremony has been in the news over alleged failure to declare his asset.
He was scheduled for arraignment before the Code of Conduct Tribunal on Monday, January 14, for allegedly omitting to declare his assets.
The case was set in motion by a civil society group called Anti-corruption and Research-based Data Initiative (ARDI), which on January 7 raised alarm over alleged illegal transactions discovered in Onnoghen’s bank accounts in a petition to the Code of Conduct Bureau.
But Onnoghen whose travails have caused a lot of criticisms against President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration appeared alongside Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara among others to mark the day.
He was pictured having a handshake with President Buhari who like other politicians at the event wore white attire.
At the commencement of the hearing of allegations against him, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal on Monday, his lead Counsel Wole Olaonipekun said that the court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case against the CJN.
The matter was adjourned to January 22 but the the Federal High Court in Abuja stopped the Federal Government from arraigning him before the CCT.
While ruling on two separate ex parte applications on Monday, Justice N.E Maha, ordered parties to maintain status quo till January 17, and also ruled in the two different suits that the defendants should be served with all the papers filed and they should appear in court at the next hearing.
