The Presidency did not enter into any deal with the embattled Justice Walter Onnoghen before he decided to resign his appointment as the Chief Justice of Nigeria.
Onnoghen, who is undergoing trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal for failing to declare his assets, resigned his appointment on Thursday.
There are speculations that he resigned after reaching a deal with the Presidency through the intervention of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
But a Presidency official said there was no such deal.
“There is no such thing that the Vice President brokered any deal that made the CJN to resign. It is not true,” he said.
He also insisted that there was no deal with Onnoghen, with or without Osinbajo.
The source said it was clear to all from the beginning that the allegations levelled against the former CJN were weighty.
He said Onnoghen apparently waited for the verdict of the National Judicial Council on the petitions against him before he took the decision to quit.
“There is absolutely no deal at all. What I know is that the CJN waited for NJC before he chose to resign.
“The allegations against him were clearly weighty,” he said.
Meanwhile, the prosecution and defence teams involved in the trial of Onnoghen at the CCT remain undeterred in the pursuit of the case despite the news of the embattled top judicial officer’s resignation which broke on Friday.
Culled from Punch News.
