Omoyele Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), says he was the first person to expose Walter Onnoghen, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), as possessing accounts containing unexplainable funds.
Sowore said this on Wednesday night while featuring at a town-hall meeting tagged ‘TheCandidates’, broadcast live on the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) with the support of MacArthur Foundation.
He made the statement while answering a question on how his administration would tackle corruption, if elected.
He explained that for any anti-corruption war to succeed, it must be fought indiscriminately.
“There must be consequences, you know… for people to know that it is not alright to be corrupt and still get a chieftaincy title,” he said.
“Look at the judiciary. Look, Nigeria has been playing around with crruption for a long time, but you know, as an individual, I have been fighting corruption for the last 12 years with SaharaReporters.
“The Chief Justice of Nigeria who is under trial now, I was the first person on SaharaReporters to put out his account that he has money that he cannot explain. Do you know what happened when I did it? The EFCC issued a statement that I was wrong. Now, when it is politically expedient, he is underoing trial.”
Onnoghen is currently being tried at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for fraudulent asset declaration, with latest revelation about his bank account detailing a series of dubious payments to the tune of bundreds of thousands of dollars.