The suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, has appealed against the Monday’s decision of the Code of Conduct to defer indefinitely its rulings on motions challenging its jurisdiction to entertain the non-assets declaration charges preferred against him.
Onnoghen, who was absent from the Tuesday’s proceedings of CCT on health grounds, argued that the deferment of the rulings by the CCT, violated his right to fair hearing and occasioned a grave miscarriage of justice to him.
In his three grounds notice of appeal filed before the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Tuesday, he urged the Court of Appeal to allow his appeal and “set aside the order of the tribunal made on March 11, 2019”.
He urged the Court of Appeal to go on to invoke the provisions of section 16 of the Court of Appeal Act which he contended empowered the court to hear and determine the applications which the CCT had refused to rule on.
The three-man bench of the CCT had on Monday heard the suspended CJN’s applications but announced in a bench ruling that rulings on the two motions would only be delivered along with the final judgment on the case at the end of the trial.
The Danladi Umar-led tribunal which anchored its decision to defer its rulings on the motions on the provisions of section 396(2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, also ordered a daily hearing in the case.
But Onnoghen’s legal team led by Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), argued in the suspended CJN’s notice of appeal that the CCT gave an “erroneous interpretation” to section 396(2) of ACJA, which it cited in deferring the rulings.
