Afenifere meets, issues 9-day ultimatum on confirmation of CJN

Afenifere, the pan Yoruba socio-political group, on Tuesday reinforced calls for the confirmation of the appointment of Justice Walter Onnoghen as substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).

The order is for a President Muhammadu Buhari to forward his name to the National Assembly for confirmation. The call comes on the heels of a similar one by Lawmakers from Cross River State in both chambers of the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Onnoghen has served in acting capacity for three months as CJN but is yet to receive Buhari’s nod for confirmation by the National Assembly, an act which Afenifere considers an assault on the nation’s constitution.

The Afenifere meeting of Tuesday was held in Akure and was hosted by Pa Reuben Fasoranti, in Akure. The communique was read by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Yinka Odumakin, who said: “Afenifere was worried that almost few days to the expiration of the three months tenure in acting capacity allowed by our constitution, the President has refused to forward the recommendations of NJC to the National Assembly for confirmation.

“We see this as an assault on the constitution if the three months expire and he is not confirmed as CJN of Nigeria. It will be an assault on our constitution and an attempt to crudely end a carrier of a worthy Nigerian.
“Therefore we call on Mr President to within the few days left to the expiration of the acting tenure of Justice Onnoghen send his name to the Senate for confirmation as Nigeria CJN as he is the man in line because that is what the constitution says.”

A call for a restructuring of the country was also restated by the group when it said, “The meeting resolved to set up a high power committee to rouse Yoruba nation and to network with our friends and like minds across Nigeria to work on the urgency of now to insist that this country must be restructured before we go for another election in this country because we cannot afford to continue to slide dangerously on the part of anarchy.

“The main focus is to get all hands on deck for the mobilization towards the implementation of the recommendation of the 2014 National Conference which was submitted to the Federal Executive Council, that is the minimum we demand.”

The communique also expressed concerns over what they described as “mass killing in Southern Kaduna, Middle Belt communities, Igboland, in Oke-Ogun in Oyo State and different parts of the country where there were clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

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