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A group of Senior Advocates of Nigeria(SANs), on Tuesday said suspended Chief Judge of Nigeria(CJN), Walter Onnoghen’s resignation was not enough in view of “the grave nature of the allegations” levelled against him.
The 20-member group known as the Justice Reform Project (JRP) urged the Federal Government to sanction other judges whose legitimate earnings do not justify their wealth, saying that justice should run its course in the Onnoghen case.
According to JRP, extending the anti- corruption exercise to other judges will restore confidence in the judiciary and eradicate the impression that the former CJN was being victimised.
The JRP, set up to push for reforms in the judiciary/legal profession, is led by one of the oldest SANs in the country, Mr Ebun Sofunde. Members include Jibrin Okutepa, Dr Babatunde Ajibade, Prof Ernest Ojukwu, Osaro Eghobamien, Mrs Funke Adekoya, Kayode Sofola, among others.
In a statement, the group said it noted Onnoghen’s resignation “with concern”, but added that the matter should not end there.
The statement reads, “His resignation/voluntary retirement is not an answer to these allegations and the JRP expects that justice, which is no respecter of persons or position, will be allowed to take its course.
“Beyond Honourable Justice W. S. N. Onnoghen, however, the JRP believes the revelations that have been made in the course of this affair necessitate that urgent steps be taken to identify and sanction all other Nigerian judicial officers who are found to possess inexplicable wealth that cannot be reconciled with their legitimate income or their asset declarations, two of the allegations made against Justice Onnoghen.
“These steps are necessary for a variety of reasons. First, to restore public confidence in the judiciary and disabuse the notion that all judicial officers in Nigeria are corrupt and that justice is for sale.
“Second, to disabuse the notion that Justice Onnoghen’s travails are a mere witch-hunt motivated by ethnic and political interests rather than the result of a genuine concern for sanitising and reforming the Nigerian judiciary.
“Third, to eliminate the suspicion that the Executive arm of government is using the information it has access to by virtue of its control over the apparatus of the state to take selective action only against those judicial officers that fail to do its bidding.”
“Without prejudice to the legitimate clamour for increased budgetary allocation to the judiciary, its financial independence and improvement in the working conditions of service of judicial officers, all of which JRP wholeheartedly supports, there must be better management of that which is currently allocated.
“The JRP calls on everyone with a stake in our judicial system (the public, the Bar, and the bench), to report their concerns, if any, to the relevant regulatory agencies so that they are investigated.
“The legal profession is a self-regulating one, so it behoves all its members to take an active interest in maintaining the standards of rectititude and integrity expected of judicial officers and legal practitioners.
“In making this call, the JRP merely exhorts every member of the legal profession to act as they are expected to act.
“If the profession does not regulate itself effectively, incidents such as those involving Justice Onnoghen will remain a fixture in our judicial system.”