The Presidency has denied having any deal with the embattled Justice Walter Onnoghen before he resigned his appointment as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).
Onnoghen, who is currently being tried before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for failing to declare his assets, resigned his appointment on Thursday.
Sequel to this, there are speculations that he resigned after reaching a deal with the Presidency through the intervention of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
But speaking with newsmen on Saturday, a Presidency official said, there was no such deal.
“There is no such thing that the Vice President brokered any deal that made the CJN to resign. It is not true,” he said.
He also insisted that there was no deal with Onnoghen, with or without Osinbajo.
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Noting that allegations levelled against the former CJN were weighty, the source said Onnoghen might have just wited for the verdict of the National Judicial Council (NJC) on the petitions against him before he took the decision to quit.
Similarly, he prosecution team involved in the trial of Onnoghen at the CCT insists it will continue Onnoghen’s trial despite the news of the embattled top judicial officer’s resignation which broke on Friday.
The lleader of the prosecuting team, Mr. Aliyu Umar (SAN), told newsmen that he was not aware of any deal for the withdrawal of the charges.
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