ABUJA, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The suspended top justice of Nigeria Walter Onnoghen was convicted on Thursday for false declaration of assets, and barred from holding any public office for next 10 years.
The judgement delivered by Danladi Umar, the chairman of the Code of Conduct Trubinal (CCT), ruled that Onnoghen has breached the code of conduct for public officers, and is removed from positions as the Chief Justice of Nigeria.
The judgement ruled that Onnoghen falsely declared his assets when he took public office.
The CCT also directed that all money in the accounts which he failed to declare will be seized and fortified to the federal government.
Onnoghen was sworn in as the Chief Justice of Nigeria in march 2017.
A local civil society group petitioned the CCB in January 2019, alleging that he owned some accounts mainly funded through cash deposits made by himself.
The sundry accounts were alleged to have been run in a manner inconsistent with financial transparency and the code of conduct for public officials in the country.
The CCB announced a few days later that it had filed a six-count charge against Onnoghen at the CCT bordering on false and non-assets declaration. It accused Onnoghen of operating hidden domiciliary accounts containing huge amount of foreign currencies.
On January 14, Onnoghen was absent at the commencement of his trial. It has been then adjourned several times with the former top judge consistently failing to show up in the court.
On January 25, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari suspended the chief judge and replaced him on the same day.
