Onnoghen’s assets declaration forms submitted in 2016 not verified – Former CCB official

Awwal Yakassai, a prosecution witness, on Thursday, admitted before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) that the two assets declaration forms submitted over two years ago by the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, have not been verified by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), Premium Times has reported.

Giving testimony as a federal government witness in Mr Onnoghen’s ongoing trial on charges bothering on non-declaration of assets, Mr Yakassai, a former Director of Federal Political Department of the CCB, said the suspended CJN submitted two assets declaration forms on December 14, 2016.

The two forms, marked as exhibit 2 and 3 before the CCT, are meant to cover for Mr Onnoghen’s declarations for 2014 and 2015.

The two forms are the basis for the six counts of false, non-declaration of assets of which the Mr Onnoghen is being prosecuted.

However, under cross-examination by Mr Onnoghen’s lead counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo, the witness said he saw a photocopy of Exhibit 2 and 3 which is the two asset declaration forms of Mr Onnoghen.

Sitting in the witness box, Mr Yakassai, when shown the two forms, admitted that the columns for verification of the contents of the forms remained blank and unsigned.

The witness also admitted that the content if the two forms submitted by Mr Onnoghen to the CCB were copied verbatim, word for word and figure for the figure by the petitioner, Dennis Aghanya, in his petition.

Meanwhile, Mr Yakassai said he was not shown the copy of the petition filed against Mr Onnoghen, marked as exhibit 1 before the CCT, before he made his statement on January 11.