Despite being disgraced from office, ousted Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen will be going home with a whopping N2.5 billion as severance package, Kristina Reports has learnt.

Onnoghen was recommended for compulsory retirement by the National Judicial Council (NJC) after deliberating on a petition by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which accused him of “financial impropriety, infidelity to the constitution and other economic and financial crimes related laws”.

He was convicted by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) of failure to declare his assets and consequently barred from holding public office for 10 years. Additionally, the CCT ordered that the undeclared asets be forfeited to the Federal Government.

The Cross River State born former Chief Justice had resigned his position ahead of the CCT ruling obviously in an attempt to pre-empt the ruling of the tribunal. A decision he vowed not to make when the Federal Government initially approached him to vacate his position due to allegations of sordid malfeasance.

Sources at the Ministry of Finance told Kristina Reports that Onnoghen’s retirement benefits in cash and kind will cost Nigerian taxpayers about N2.5 billion.

According to Sahara Reporters, “as part of the package for a retired chief justice, a house will be built for him in Abuja with a nine-digit sum for furnishing — in addition to a severance gratuity that is 300% of his annual basic salary of N3,363,972.50, as well as pension for life.

He is also entitled to a number of domestic staff and sundry allowances for personal upkeep.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday, June 9, 2019 accepted Onnoghen’s voluntary retirement from service as Chief Justice of Nigeria, effective from May 28, 2019 with a retirement package of N2.5 Billion.  

Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said the President thanked Justice Onnoghen for his service to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and wished him the best of retirement life.

Onnoghen, 68, was due for retirement in 2020, but he turned in his resignation letter as CJN on April 4, 2019, to save himself from prosecution.

Onnoghen has been enmeshed in a false asset declaration scandal since January 2019, as upon resuming office as CJN, failed to declare a domiciliary US dollar account, a domiciliary euro account, a domiciliary (pound sterling) account, an e-saver savings (naira) account and a naira account, all maintained with Standard Chartered Bank (Nig.) Ltd in Abuja as part of the compulsory asset declaration form.