It was near pin drop silence at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday when the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF) revealed that it was not in possession of the case file for the trial of former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Samuel Walter Nkanu Onnoghen, five years after the conclusion of the trial.
Onnoghen was prosecuted in 2019 by the federal government on false declaration of assets at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, found guilty, and removed from office.
He was also made to forfeit the undeclared assets to the federal government.
However, at the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, the representative of the federal government, Tijani Gazali, told the appellate court that not a single paper in respect of the trial and conviction of the ex-CJN was with the Federal Ministry of Justice.
Gazali, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), informed the three-man panel of Justices billed to hear the appeal of Onnoghen that the trial of the former CJN was contracted to a Kano-based private lawyer, Aliyu Umar SAN.
He explained that the said private senior lawyer who prosecuted the case from the beginning to the end had died four years ago.
The federal government lawyer therefore appealed to the Court to grant an adjournment to enable the government to approach the chambers of the late private lawyer to retrieve necessary documents to respond to the appeal.
According to him, virtually all the processes served on the AGF in 2019 were taken to a private lawyer.
Besides, Gazali said that the matter was being looked into from another perspective with a view to working out an amicable resolution of issues in dispute by the new Attorney General of the Federation.
However, counsel to the former CJN, Chris Uche SAN, pointed out to the Court that some documents were actually served on the AGF office and acknowledged.
Uche appealed to the Court to allow him to move an application for an accelerated hearing, which was granted upon no objections from the federal government.
Justice C. I. Jombo Ofo, who presided over the matter, granted an accelerated hearing and subsequently fixed September 19 for the hearing of the appeal.
Onnoghen, who was in court to witness the proceedings, is praying the Court of Appeal to set aside the judgement of the CCT that removed him from office and ordered the forfeiture of his five bank accounts.
