Following the controversial suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Executive and Board of the Igbo Canadian Community Association (ICCA/Umunna) has described the suspension as an ill conceived and provocative attempt at usurping the constitution to give way to dictatorial hormones intoxicating Buhari’s DNA.
In a statement issued in Toronto, Canada by the President, Chief Ugochukwu Okoro, through the Public Relations Officer, Ahaoma Kanu, the socio-cultural and pressure group said that President Buhari has brazenly unveiled his plans to rig the 2019 elections by suspending the constitution in order to pave way for his handlers to teleguide and corrupt the election tribunals having seen the evidence that Nigerians have rejected his incompetent government.
“We stand with Nigerians and lovers of democracy across the globe in condemning the selfish, unconscionable, undemocratic and unconstitutional action of President Muhammadu Buhari in suspending the Chief Justice of the Federal Republic without recourse to constitutional procedures requiring such action. The action of Mr President is dangerous to our democracy and should be fought against through all constitutional means.
“The Nigeria constitution Section 292 (1) and paragraph 20 and 21 of the Third Schedule to the Constitution stipulates that the CJN enjoys security of tenure and is not removable except within the strict procedure and for the specific reasons enshrined therein. The CJN can only be removed from office by the President acting on an address supported by two thirds majority of the senate for his inability to discharge the functions of his office or appointment.
“It is not surprising that President Buhari, in all his attempts to overthrow democracy which have all been met with strong opposition, has unleashed a mutiny on the judiciary in a manner which illuminates his preference for overtaking power.
President Buhari’s action only exposes the desperate measures he and his handlers are now employing having gone across the country and seen how unpopular his government is hence his resort to unconstitutional means to remove the CJN. Also sad and diminishing is the reason Mr. President premised his actions on. This is a President that have constantly disobeyed court orders; shielded indicted criminals and turned a blind eye to hard evidences exposing his loyalists in corrupt practices. Listening to President Buhari give such fragile statements as his basis for taking on an unconstitutional path to usurp democracy does him no good but adds further assault to his already tattered reputation in respecting the rule of law.
“We call on President Buhari to, with immediate effect, reinstate Justice Onnoghen as the constitutionally appointed Chief Justice of Nigeria failure of which we urge both chambers of the National Assembly to confront this ugly and detestable development with the full wrath of its authority, invoking impeachment proceedings if need be.”
Also reacting, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara said the decision to suspend Justice Walter Onnoghen confirms that Nigeria is now a “full blown dictatorship”. Dogara, who made this declaration in his reaction to the president’s action, also maintained that the Nigerian constitution does not in anyway confer powers on the president to suspend a CJN. “With the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) by President Muhammadu Buhari, the world has been served with notice that Nigeria is now a full-blown dictatorship.
“This did not come as a rude shock except to those that have been blind to the gradual but progressive erosion of democratic values in the polity as President Buhari’s government has never hidden its disdain for the rule of law,” he said.
