Opposition parties on the platform of the Coalition of United Political Parties are planning a one-million-man march to protest the planned trial of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
The coalition’s first national spokesperson, Imo Ugochinyere, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja on Saturday.
Ugochinyere said the protest was meant to save the nation’s judiciary and by extension, Nigeria’s democracy.
“Nigerian opposition will immediately commence mobilisation for a one-million-man march to save the Nigerian judiciary from President Buhari’s reign of destruction,” he said.
He described Onnoghen’s planned arraignment as undemocratic and unconstitutional.
He said the plan was the latest in the strategies being deployed by the present administration to rig the forthcoming elections.
He added, “The Presidency had during the appointment of Justice Onnoghen shown its card that it was not comfortable with his appointment hence it was delayed until President Buhari was hurried out of the country due to perennial illness.
“Justice Onnoghen has since shown that he is fair, firm, and able to do justice and will not succumb to the pressures of a Presidency that is planning to rig an election as the only hope of winning reelection following their rejection by the Nigerian people.
“This dastardly move by the Presidency is the last desperate acts of an outgoing government to blackmail the CJN out of office and bring in a rogue judge to allow APC’s rigging.”
He enjoined Onnoghen not to resign for the sake of the nation’s democracy.
He said, “The trumped-up charges will fall like a pack of cards like those filed against the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and all the judges whose homes were invaded on October 7, 2016.
“These acts of desperation are an unequivocal declaration of war on the Nigerian democracy by the Buhari Presidency and the ruling APC.
“President Buhari is now living in morbid fear of losing the election after he wasted the opportunity freely and willingly given to him by Nigerians to improve their lot.
“This can only be a plot to manipulate post 2019 election tribunal. Nothing else can be behind this despotic move to desecrate office of the CJN.
“This plot is as sacrilegious, if not more, as the demolishing of the homes of judges and not securing any convictions but this is the last defence line of democracy which must be protected at all cost even with the blood of Nigerians.
“We know we are dealing with a President who is a maniac now. He is willing to bring Nigeria to a grinding halt. Nothing is sacred to President Buhari anymore. Not the lives of Nigerians, not our institutions of state, not security, not the economy, just absolutely nothing.
“What President Buhari is doing is the height of impunity and rascality. The CJN cannot be forced out of office even with a trillion fictitious charges.”
Ugochinyere claimed that intelligence reports showed that some ministers and leaders of the APC are behind Onnoghen’s ordeal.
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