The Court of Appeal in Abuja approved on Thursday the moves by the federal government and former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen, to reach an out-of-court settlement in a case that stemmed from the ex-CJN’s trial and conviction by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) in 2019.

It adjourned until 4 November for a report of settlement between the two parties.

The court gave the approval following submissions of both parties to the appeal indicating that they were actively engaging in talks aimed at resolving the issues amicably.

Then President Muhammadu Buhari controversially suspended Mr Onnoghen in January 2019 to keep him out of office while he faced assets declaration charges at the CCT. Mr Buhari based his action suspending Mr Onnoghen on a widely condemned ex parte order of the CCT.

Mr Onnoghen was later convicted by the tribunal in April 2019.

The tribunal ordered his removal from office, but his exit was eventually taken as a voluntary retirement based on a resignation letter he submitted to the National Judicial Council (NJC) before the tribunal delivered judgement.

Mr Onnoghen immediately challenged the judgement at the Court of Appeal in Abuja. But the appeal went cold from when the appeal was filed in 2019 until last month when it came up for hearing for the first time.

At the hearing in August, the legal teams of both the CJN and the federal government indicated that there was an ongoing out-of-court settlement talk.

During Thursday’s proceedings, Ogwu Onoja, lead counsel for Mr Onnoghen, informed the three-member panel of the Court of Appeal that both parties had met as recently as Wednesday, 18 September, in hopes of reaching an agreement on the terms of settlement.

Mr Onoja, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), requested a one-month adjournment to finalise the discussions.

In agreement, the federal government’s lawyer, Tijani Gazali, also a SAN, said, “My Lords, I wish to humbly confirm the information. It is our position to settle the matter out of court.”

The presiding justice of the panel, Joseph Oyewole, acknowledged the efforts of both parties to reach a settlement and directed them to submit formal terms of settlement by the next hearing.

If submitted, the judge said, the prospective terms would be adopted as the court’s judgement.

The court then adjourned until 4 November.

culled premium times