Elder statesman Chief Edwin Clark has accused former President Muhammadu Buhari of oppressing and humiliating Justice Walter Onnoghen, the former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), as part of a calculated move to secure re-election in 2019.
Clark alleged that Buhari, in collaboration with his then Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), orchestrated Onnoghen’s removal to facilitate their political agenda during the election period.
In a letter addressed to the current CJN, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, on Sunday, Clark commended the Court of Appeal for acquitting Onnoghen of false asset declaration charges, describing the allegations as unjust. He criticised the manner of Onnoghen’s suspension, noting that it violated constitutional provisions requiring the involvement of the National Judicial Council and the National Assembly in such actions.
Reflecting on the events surrounding the 2019 election, Clark claimed that Onnoghen’s removal was strategically planned to eliminate any opposition to alleged electoral manipulations.
He remarked, “As for the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, in his own case, ‘a Daniel has come to judgment’. I knew he was not fairly treated; he was oppressed and humiliated by President Muhammadu Buhari and his Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN).
“At this juncture, let me say this: President Tinubu’s government must not allow sacred cows to exist in Nigeria, no matter whose ox is gored. There is no one who is above the law in his own country. A president of a country is just one of the ordinary members in the country, but once elected, enjoys immunity. There is nowhere therefore in the constitution or any legal document where it is stated that immunity is for life.
“Today in Nigeria, we have corrupt Presidents and some of them today are accusing their successors of corruption without looking back at what they themselves stole while in office but no one dares to touch them. Perhaps, it is an irony of fate for the former CJN, Justice Walter Onnoghen, who was one of the Supreme Court Justices whose judgment favoured President Muhammadu Buhari in his presidential election case in the Supreme Court in 2011.”
Clark further alleged that Buhari’s ultimate goal was to prevent Onnoghen from serving as CJN during the critical period of the 2019 elections.
“He (Buhari) allowed him to rise to the post of CJN but he saw that, that was not good enough for him because if Justice Onnoghen was to remain the CJN, the mess and mischievous things they wanted to carry out during the presidential election in 2019, Justice Onnoghen would not accept it and the best thing was to remove him, and this was the secret plan between President Buhari and his Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
“The show of shame that took place at the time was so disgraceful, callous, unjust and so barbaric that instead the President of Nigeria, who swore to an oath of office that he would maintain security and welfare of Nigerians, chose to stoop so low in order to humiliate a fellow Nigerian because he wanted to be President of Nigeria at all costs for a second term. It is a shame which Nigeria has just recovered from,” Clark stated.
