Headlines
NJC Removes Onnoghen’s Name from Membership List
Justice Walter Onnoghen’s name has been removed from the National Judicial Council’s members’ list, preparing the ground for a Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, to emerge as the council’s deputy chairman, The PUNCH reports.
The altered membership list of the NJC was observed on the council’s website at about 7.15pm on Sunday.
The list, displaying 23 members instead of the full membership of 24, shows that the council has yet to have a deputy chairman as constitutionally provided.
It was gathered that following Onnoghen’s exit, Justice Rhodes-Vivour as the second most senior Justice of the Supreme Court would be announced as the deputy chairman at the next meeting of the council.
“The date of the next meeting of the NJC is not known yet; but because the acting CJN has just taken over as the acting chairman of the council, it is expected that the deputy chairman will be announced at the next meeting,” a top judiciary source told our correspondent on Sunday.
Paragraph 20 (a) of Part I of the Third Schedule to the Constitution makes “the next most senior Justice of the Supreme Court” a member of the council and provides that the person “shall be the Deputy Chairman.”
Our correspondent also observed on the website of the council on Sunday that the membership list of the NJC had been altered to reflect the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, as the acting chairman.
Onnoghen now occupies the 16th position on the list of former Chief Justices of Nigeria as observed on the website by our correspondent on Sunday.
The Code of Conduct Tribunal had last Thursday convicted Onnoghen on charges of breach of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers and ordered his removal as the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the chairman of both the NJC and the Federal Judicial Service Commission.
But multiple judiciary sources told our correspondent on Sunday that the NJC’s membership list was altered shortly after Justice Onnoghen tendered his resignation letter on April 4.
Constitutionally, the CJN is automatically the chairman of both the NJC and the Federal Judicial Service Commission, but Muhammad only took over the headship of the council on April 4, over two months after he began to act as the CJN.
This was a day after the NJC cleared him of wrongdoing in allowing himself to be sworn in as the acting CJN without NJC’s recommendation.
The council, which also investigated Onnoghen for various acts of misconduct, was said to have recommended him for retirement.
Onnoghen reportedly resigned on April 4, barely 24 hours after the NJC sent its recommendations to President Buhari.
Muhammad took over as the acting CJN after he was cleared by the NJC and Onnoghen resigned.
The current members of the NJC as observed on the council’s website on Sunday included Justice Muhammad; President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa; a former Justice of the Supreme Court and a former chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, Justice Emmanuel Ayoola; a former Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Sunday Akintan; and a former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Umaru Abdullahi.
They also included a retired Justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice, V.O.A Omage;
Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Adamu Abdu-Kafarati; President, National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Justice Babatunde Adejumo; Chief Judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Justice Ishaq Bello; and Chief Judge of Oyo State, Justice Munta Abiola.
The Chief Judge of Borno State, Justice Kashim Zannah; Chief Judge of Imo State, Pascal Nnadi; Chief Judge of Delta State, Marshal Umukoro; Grand Kadi, Sharia Court of Appeal, Kwara State Grand Kadi Mohammed Abdulkadir; and President, Customary Court of Appeal, Plateau State, Justice Julia Kyentu are also members.
They also included the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr Paul Usoro (SAN); a former NBA President, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN); and three NBA members, namely Dr Muiz Banire (SAN); Damien Dodo (SAN), and Efe Etomi.
The rest are a retired public servant, Mrs Rakiya Ibrahim; a former Permanent Secretary, Mrs R. Inga and Secretary to the Council, Ahmed Saleh.
The Punch
Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai on Thursday noted that if he were in the President Bola Tinubu-led government, his remarks about the administration would remain unchanged.
This was in his response to the President’s Special Adviser on Policy Communications, Daniel Bwala.
El-Rufai had described the state of governance and opposition in the country as a “national emergency” at a national conference in Abuja on strengthening democracy in Nigeria on Monday.
The former governor also lamented the lack of internal democracy and active party structures within the All Progressives Congress, saying, “I no longer recognise the APC. No party organ has met in two years—no caucus, no NEC, nothing. You don’t even know if it is a one-man show; it’s a zero-man show.’
In its response, the ruling APC knocked El-Rufai, as it accused him of treachery over how he had been dragging the Federal Government and the ruling party recently.
This prompted Bwala’s question to the APC chieftain via his X handle, saying, “My Senior brother if you were to be in the government and cabinet, would you have held and expressed the same position?
On Thursday, the former governor, via his X handle, asserted his stance, as he called out “latter-day converts” to the Tinubu administration for insisting he wanted to serve as a minister in the current government.
“Good morning, #BwalaDaniel, I was cabinet minister 22 years ago and was clear to Asiwaju that I was not interested in any position in his future government. The pathetic manner all of you latter-day converts to the Tinubu government make an issue of something that I never wanted in the first place is perhaps a reflection of the level of your moral flexibility.
“If I had remained in the Tinubu government, I will say or do the same on the tragedy within a party I was a founder, and the government that emerged from it – first in private sessions with those concerned, and then go public if no remedial actions are taken. Go and check my public service record from 1998.
“I am only responding to you because I still think you are a decent person who may need a job, and not in the class of Wendell Simlin and that Kaduna pretender that our voters retired in 2019 – these clowns are political mercenaries that receive humongous monthly stipends from the security vote to be the first to jump on X and other platforms to defend everything the Asiwaju government does or fails to do, no matter how indefensible it may be.
“Enjoy your special adviser position, my brother, but remember that allegiance to God and country comes first in the human scale of accountability, before any person or authority.”
In line with Prof Afe Babalola’s promise to forgive defamation charge against Lagos-based lawyer and author, Mr. Dele Farotimi, the Federal High Court sitting in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, has struck out the criminal charge filed by the police against Farotimi.
Justice Babs Kuewumi struck out the charge following an application by the police prosecutor, Samson Osobu, to withdraw the case.
Osobu told the court that the prosecution had filed a notice of discontinuance.
He said: “The matter is slated for hearing today, but we have filed a notice of discontinuance dated January 29, 2025, and filed this morning”.
Predictably, Farotimi’s team of lawyers, led by Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN), raised no objection.
That paved the way for Justice Kuewumi to strike out the case, with the judge declaring: “This case is hereby struck out.”
Outside the courtroom, Olumide-Fusika told journalists that the case has been concluded in this particular court but declined to comment on related matters pending in other courts.
He also said that he advised Farotimi against granting press interviews on the matter.
Meanwhile, another criminal charge filed by the police against Farotimi is pending before the Magistrate Court also in Ado-Ekiti.
The case before Magistrate Abayomi Adeosun was adjourned to February 13, 2025, and it is expected that the police will also move to discontinue proceedings in that court and withdraw the charge.
There are also civil cases against Farotimi pending before the FCT High Court, Abuja, the Ogun State High Court, Oyo State High Court, and Rivers State High Court which were filed by lawyers in the Afe Babalola Chambers in those states.
Some of the courts had granted interim orders restraining Farotimi or any person acting through him from further printing, publication and sale of his book titled: “Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System”.
It is not yet clear whether those cases will also be discontinued.
Detained leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has dragged the Nigeria Police Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, to court for accusing the group of killings in Imo State and other parts of the South-East region.
In the libel suit filed before the FCT High Court in Abuja on Tuesday by his legal team led by his Special Counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, Kanu is demanding N20 billion in damages as well as a retraction of the accusations.
The IPOB leader also warned that any security agency or individual directly or indirectly peddling propaganda against IPOB will be sued to compel such an entity or individual to come to court and present their evidence.
Ejimakor who shared details of the suit on his X account on Tuesday night, stated that the detained IPOB leader accused Adejobi of defaming him by calling him and IPOB a terrorist and a terrorist group in a media publication by Vanguard Newspaper on January 25, 2025, titled, “Imo: Police neutralise six IPOB/ESN terrorists, recover arms”.
The lawyer said it was out of place for the police spokesman to label Kanu a terrorist or IPOB a terrorist group as, according to him, a competent high court had held in October 2022 that the Federal Government breached the Constitution in labeling IPOB a terrorist group and that the group was discriminatorily targeted because its membership is populated by the Igbo.
He said, “Earlier today, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s legal team issued a Writ of Summons against ACP OLUMUYIWA ADEJOBI, the Police Public Relations Officer in a Suit for defamation brought on behalf of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu,” Ejimakor wrote.
“The Suit was filed at the FCT high court for ACP Adejobi’s widely published defamatory utterances, claiming that those killed by police in Owerri three days ago are IPOB members.
“In issuing instructions to file this suit, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu made it very clear that any security agency and others engaging in media trial of his person (directly or indirectly) or peddling propaganda against IPOB will be sued to enable such an entity come to court to present their evidence.
“This is especially compelling as these false narratives can turn prejudicial against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and the IPOB which still have pertinent cases pending in court.
“To this end, media houses are hereby encouraged to verify the accuracy of these anti-IPOB, anti-Nnamdi Kanu, anti-Igbo defamatory statements issuing from security agencies that beat their chests and leave the uncanny impression that they are somehow benefiting from stoking insecurity and panic by way of needless propaganda.
“For avoidance of doubt, a competent high court had held in October 2022 that the Federal Government blatantly breached the Constitution in tagging IPOB a terrorist group and that the group was discriminatorily targeted because its membership is populated by the Igbo.
“Therefore, this tendency by security agencies to tag every criminal element encountered in Southeast as IPOB must stop forthwith. If it does not, we shall take prompt vigorous legal steps to protect the name of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and that of Ndigbo who are collectively defamed by this false and libelous narrative.
“To keep tagging every criminal encountered in Southeast as IPOB exhibits a false narrative that defames not only Nnamdi Kanu but the entire Igbo.
“The statements are false and constitute a grave libel on his person, as the words in their natural and ordinary meaning portray him as a leader of a violent and terrorist group.
“The said words in their natural and ordinary meaning were meant and were understood to mean that the Claimant is in fact a leader of a terrorist movement that is to be vicariously blamed for alleged acts of terrorism in Imo State.
“That the words were meant to call into question the Claimant’s honesty, personal integrity and reputation.
“That the Claimant states that these defamatory and libelous statements go far beyond fair comment and are malicious and are designed specifically to impugn his person and character and they were made in bad faith.
“Kanu, therefore, prayed the court for a declaration that Adejobi’s published statements or utterances are libelous and defamatory.
“He also sought an order of this Honourable Court directing the Defendant to retract the said publications through other publications through the same media by way of issuance of another press statement.
“An Order of this Honorable Court directing the Defendant to write and deliver to the Claimant, an unreserved letter of apology. The letter of apology shall be prominently and boldly published full-page in three (3) national dailies, namely: then SUN, Daily Trust and Vanguard.
“An Order of perpetual injunction restraining the Defendant from further and forever uttering the said defamatory and libelous words about or concerning the Claimant.
“An Order of this Honorable Court directing the Defendant to pay to the Claimant the sum of N20,000,000,000 being general and exemplary damages.
“An Order of this Honorable Court directing the Defendant to pay the cost of this Suit.”
Source: Ripples
