CCT trial: Onnoghen given deadline to close defence over allegation of non-assets declaration

The Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, Wednesday, approved three working days spanning from Friday to next week Monday for the defence counsel to submit his final written addresses over Onnoghen’s decision to close his defence.

It also gave all the parties up to April 15, for the adoption of written addresses, determination of pending applications and to fix a date for judgement.
This development followed the submission by the defence counsel, Chris Uche, SAN, who announced the decision of the defence to close his case.

He said, “After a very deep review and consideration, we have taken a decision to close our case. This is pursuant to paragraph 14, of the practice direction of this tribunal. We apply to file our final written addresses.
“The written address will entail all the tribunal’s proceedings. We, therefore, apply that the tribunal makes available to us the April 1, proceedings.
“We are asking for 14 days to allow us prepare our final written address”.

In his reaction, prosecution counsel, Aliyu Umar who did not object to the submission of the defence counsel also asked for time to file his own written address.
CCT chairman, Danladi Umar in his response resolved to allow the defence counsel from April 4 to 8, within which to submit his written address while the prosecution counsel was granted from April 9 to 11, to also submit his written address.
It would also be recalled that one of the pending applications is seeking for the tribunal chairman to excuse himself following an allegation of bias while the other is challenging the tribunal’s jurisdiction to handle the matter in question.
But the tribunal chairman said after the adoption of the written addresses from the parties, the tribunal will subsequently fix a date to determine the lingering applications and judgment.