CCT Judgment On Onnog‎hen Shifted From 9 am Till Noon

The judgment of the Code of Conduct Tribunal on Justice Walter Onnoghen, who is being prosecuted on charges of assets declaration breaches, has been shifted from 9 am the originally scheduled time, till noon on Thursday.

Onnoghen had arrived the premises of the tribunal at 8.40am ahead of the judgment.

Only two of his lawyers and a handful of his aides were seated in the courtroom when a court official announced the postponement at 9 am.

No member of the prosecution team was in court when the postponement was announced

None of them arrived as of the time of filing this report at 9.11am.

Onnoghen had yet to step out ‎of his vehicle as of the time the postponement was announced.

His convoy left the premises as soon as the information about the new development reached him.

The Chairman of the CCT, Danladi Umar, after the prosecution and the defence, made closing arguments on Monday, specifically fixed judgment for 9 am on Thursday‎, a departure from the usual 10 am sitting time of the tribunal.

Onnoghen reportedly resigned on April 4, he was charged with alleged breaches of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers before the CCT on January 11, 2019, as a sitting CJN.

Specifically, the Federal Government, acting through the Code of Conduct Bureau, had on January 11, filed against Onnoghen, six counts, accusing him in the first count of failure to declare his assets to the bureau between June 2005 and December 14, 2016.

In the rest of the five counts, the defendant was alleged to have falsely declared his assets on December 14, 2016,  by allegedly omitting to declare his domiciliary dollar, euro and pound sterling accounts as well as his two naira accounts, all maintained with Standard Chartered Bank (Nig.) Ltd.