Skip to main content

Process For Forfeiture Of Onnoghen’s Funds To Begin On Tuesday


The process of taking ownership of the funds lodged in five bank accounts opened in the name of Walter Onnoghen, former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), is set to begin on Tuesday.
Onnoghen was convicted last Thursday by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) on charges of breach of the Code of Conduct for public officers.
He was found guilty of fraudulent asset declaration.
The three-man tribunal, led by Danladi Umar, ordered Onnoghen’s removal as the CJN, and as the Chairman of both the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the Federal Judicial Service Commission as punishment for his alleged offences. 
Onnoghen was also banned from holding any public office for a period of 10 years.
Furthermore, the tribunal also gave an order that funds in the five bank accounts, which the defendant failed to declare as part of his assets in breach of the Code of Conduct for public officers, should be forfeited.
Umar Aliyu (SAN), the prosecuting counsel, said the tribunal would file an order of forfeiture and the Nigerian government would pass on the order to the bank, Standard Chartered Bank (Nig.) Ltd, on Tuesday.
He said: “The order of the court will have to be served on the bank.
“In line with the judgment of the tribunal, an order will now have to be drawn from the judgment to the effect that the money in the accounts should be forfeited to the Federal Government.
“Without that, the bank will not accede to any request by the Federal Government for the forfeiture of the accounts.
“We expect that after the Easter break (which ends on Monday), the order will be drawn up by the tribunal and would be subsequently served on the bank.”
Ibraheem Al-Hassan, Head of Press and Public Relations Unit of the CCT, also said the order would be ready for service on the bank on Tuesday.
According to the Punch newspaper, Al-Hassan said the order had not been drawn up from the judgment because there was no time to do so since the verdict was delivered late on Thursday.
Al-Hassan said: “The order would be ready by Tuesday. If you recall, the judgment was delivered late into the closing time on Thursday, so, there was no time to draw the order from the judgment. Friday and Monday are public holidays.
“So, the next work day is Tuesday. By Tuesday, the order will be ready for service.”

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Two teenagers arrested for raping 14-year-old girl in Ogun State

                            Two teenagers, Abiodun Ishola (19) and Kehinde Oloyede (18), have been arrested by the Ogun State Police Command for allegedly gang-raping a 14-year-old girl in Obantoko. The Command Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the suspects were arrested April 28, 2018 following a complaint from the victim who reported to the police. He said the victim, a hairdressing apprentice, said she was going to her boss’ shop on that day, and unknown to her, there was restriction of movement due to a sanitation exercise. He said one of the suspects, Ishola, who was sitting down in front of his father’s house informed her of the restriction of movement and asked her to come and stay in their house till the exercise ended. The victim told the police that while she was staying with Ishola, he took her bag inside...

police arrest Pastor for allegedly raping teenage girls during a deliverance session in Anambra state

  Pastor Chukwudi Chukwumezie of the Mountain Zion deliverance Ministry, Ugamuma village, Obosi, has been arrested by men of the Anambra state police command for allegedly luring and having unlawful carnal knowledge with two fifteen years old girls under the false pretence of conducting deliverance prayers for them   A statement released by Haruna Mohammed, spokesperson of the state police command, said in August 2019, the accused clergyman was arrested for allegedly luring and having unlawful carnal knowledge with a fifteen-year-old girl at a hotel along Eze iweka road Obosi under false pretence of making a deliverance prayers for her.     Haruna said the victim to the hospital for medical Examination where penetration and laceration of her hymen were confirmed by the medical doctor after which suspect was charged to Court for prosecution.     According to the statement, the clergyman who presently jumped court ...

Police arraign disbarred lawyer for alleged fraud

                                 A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Gudu, Abuja on Thursday remanded a debarred lawyer, Emeka Ugwuonye, who runs a popular Facebook page, “Due Process Advocate”, in prison following his arraignment by the police. Mr Ugwuonye was arraigned on a 10-count charge of extortion, impersonation, injurious falsehood and false information. He was accused of extorting money from the family of a woman he falsely alleged was killed by her estranged husband. One of the charges reads: “That you Ephraim Chukwuemeka Ugwuonye (m) on or about May to date, at diverse places in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did commit illegal act to wit: extortion by threat of accusation of an offence punishable by death, when you intentionally extorted monies and other valuables fr...