Justice Onnoghen accuses CCB of altering information in his asset declaration form

JUSTICE Walter Onnoghen has accused the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) of tampering with his asset declaration form and falsifying some of the information he submitted in a bid to get him found guilty of failing to declare his assets.

In January this year, President Muhammadu Buhari suspended the embattled Justice Onnoghen and replaced him with Justice Tanko Mohammed, who was sworn-in as the acting chief judge of Nigeria (CJN). Over recent months, Justice Onnoghen has been involved in intense political jockeying with the government that involved him being charged before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) with false asset declaration.

Last Friday, Justice Onnoghen appeared before the CTT to answer the charges in what has become a messy case involving dozens of law suits. Yesterday, the federal government produced its first witness in the case James Opala, a CCB senior investigation officer, who was a member of a team of investigators that uncovered alleged infractions in Justice Onnoghen's asset declaration forms.

Apart from allegations that he failed to declare his assets as prescribed by the law, in the six-count charge, Justice Onnoghen is also accused of operating five foreign bank accounts, contrary to section 15(2) of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act. During the trial, a petition sent in by civil society group Anti-Corruption and Research-Based Data Initiative, which included two asset declaration forms the submitted by Justice Onnoghen in 2014 and 2015, was admitted as evidence.

However, before the asset declaration forms were admitted, Justice Onnoghen, through his lawyer, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, alleged that they were tampered with. Justice Onnoghen insisted that the Form 001 he filled in 2014 and 2015 were no longer the way he submitted them to the CCB.

In addition, Justice Onnoghen queried why the hitherto bound documents appeared in loose form before the tribunal, alleging that some of the pages were missing. Chief Awomolo said he would raise his client’s objection to the admissibility of the documents, in his final written address.