Spokesman of Afenifere, Mr Yinka Odumakin, has described the manner by which the embattled Chief Justice of Nigeria was sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari as a coup on democracy, hurried and overbearing, adding that the President is an unrepentant dictator.
In the same vein, the Principal Partner, Matthew Bukar and Co, Barr Matthew Bukar, noted that the failure of the President to wait for court’s decision on Onnoghen’s matter undermined the judiciary as well as the justice system in the country.
Odumakin and Bukar spoke in eclusive interviews with The Point at the weekend.
According to Odumakin, President Buhari is fast assuming the posture of an unrepentant dictator as a retired military junta.
As a result of this, he expressed the need for Nigerians to be careful on the choice of candidate to vote in as president in the February 16 poll, saying it would be a costly error for the people to allow Buhari to have second term in office.
Odumakin said, “As a newspaper editorial put it on Saturday, the dictator bears its fangs. It is an evidence of military hangover for Mr President. Remember when he went to Saudi Arabia recently, he said he preferred his military days to the civilian era. In the military days, if you were called a thief, the next thing was to jail you; no room to prove your innocence.
He said, “He (Buhari) has resulted to self help now because he doesn’t have the power to do what he has done. Itsey Sagay is talking about Section 292. Under that Section, the president can remove the CJN if there is two-thirds by the Senate to that effect. Now NJC is not involved, the Senate is not involved and he went and took a decision by himself. Even the order from the Code of Conduct Tribunal did not ask him to remove but said he should set aside. Until that happens, there is no vacancy in the CJN position.
“If a man going for election in less than 30 days is doing like this, how would he behave if he comes for second term? That is the big poser for Nigerians as we go to vote. We need to stand up now and take back our demcracy. This is a coup on democracy and an unjust action. We must not accept this military action sincerely.”
Bukar, on his part, recalled that the argument on the procedure for the sack of a sitting CJN was evoked when former President Goodluck Jonathan removed Justice Ayo Salami from office as President of the Court of Appeal.
He said, “The same scenario played out in the case of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who was also ‘suspended’ from office. Sanusi was Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria at the time. In all these cases, the executive smartly used the word ‘suspension,’ they did’nt say it was removal from office because they knew that they would indict themselves if they used the word removal, because they did not follow the laid down procedure by which the occupants of those offices were to be discharged from office.
“But, it’s a case of common sense and we don’t need to look far before we know that the Executive removed those people. Sanusi, like Ayo Salami, never returned to office and they are on suspension till date.The Federal Government, by obtaining the order from CCT, tried to justify the removal, but the point is, the procedure is flawed. So, what the Executive has done is a way of circumventing the law, because once these people go on suspension, they don’t return.”
“Let nobody or persons play politics with the law; we should be honest. The procedure by which the CJN’s suspension was obtained from the CCT is flawed and cannot be regarded as lawful,” he added.
