Onnoghen: There’s no judicial gang up against anti-corruption war

Walter Onnoghen, chief justice of Nigeria, says there’s no judicial gang up to scuttle the federal government’s war against corruption.

Within a week, the federal government lost cases against Mike Ozekhome, a senior advocate of Nigeria, Godsday Orubebe, former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, former first lady, Patience Jonathan, and Adeniyi Ademola, his wife Olubowale and Joe Agi.

Speaking on Tuesday after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Onnoghen said the federal government can appeal the court ‎rulings while urging Nigerians not to be judgmental.

“I am not going to speculate. I am a lawyer and a judicial officer. I operate on facts and the law. So, I can’t answer that question because I am not on everybody’s mind. You are free to think whatever you want to think but I think you should be guided by facts and the law when it comes to judicial performance or discharge of judicial responsibilities,” he said.

“The system is fashioned and designed in such a way that if you lose in the magistrate court and you are not satisfied; because someone must win and another must lose; so the loser has the chance of testing the decision on appeal. When it comes to the judiciary, don’t be judgmental. When you are judgmental, you become prejudice.

Onnoghen said the anti-corruption efforts of the federal government has not lost steam despite the recent losses of four major court cases.

“You take that as losing steam? If there was steam, then it wouldn’t have been without the participation of the judiciary. Good. So, if there is losing of steam, you should not equally relate it only to the judiciary. The fight against corruption has lost no steam,” he said.

“It is not correct. Now, you should know one thing: two people will always have a ‎quarrel. They may be three or four or one hundred. All the parties to that quarrel will always have different stories to tell. The way our system is fashioned and designed and operated, when you go to a court of law, you cannot have a drawn game. There must be a winner and there must be a loser. In our system, a loser has the chance of appealing to the highest court eventually.

“So, you cannot say because the government or any agency has lost a case in the high court, you have lost a case and the fight is losing steam. You should realise that there is a constitution in place and under the constitution, there is a rule of law. So, every system under a constitutional arrangement operated under the rule of law must have these things as checks and balances to protect everyone. It is for everyone.”