The National Judicial Council (NJC) has constituted a new investigative panel to further deliberate on the preliminary assessment of an earlier panel in the petitions against the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen and the acting CJN, Justice Tanko Mohammed.
The NJC met on Wednesday to receive the recommendation of the initial panel constituted to look into the responses of Justice Onnoghen and Mohammed, and decided to probe further into the allegations against the two most senior justices.
In a statement signed by the Director of Information, Soji Oye, the NJC agreed that “the petitions were worthy of further investigation and should not be terminated under Rule 17 of the Judicial Discipline Regulations of the Council.”
“Consequently, the council constituted a five-member Investigation Committee pursuant to Rule 20 (1) of the Judicial Discipline Regulations under the Chairmanship of Hon. Mr. Justice S. A. Akintan, CON, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.”
The NJC also said it received a fresh petition from the All Peoples Party (APP) against Justice Mohammed, and directed him to reply within seven working days.
“Council directed the Investigation Committee to work expeditiously, determine all the petitions and responses and report to Council for a final decision,” the statement read.
