Thread by @ChidiOdinkalu

Despite manifest incongruities in the official story-line concerning @MBuhari's decision to remove the Chief Justice of Nigeria in Jan 2019, I was willing to suspend my disbelief & wait for govt to present evidence to support its claims of asset malfeasance in the #OonoghenTrial

When it launched its fevered campaign against the Chief Justice before the #OnnoghenTrial in the month before #NigeriaDecides2019, the govt claimed thro its hired hands that he had money running into Billions in multiple bank accounts & over 55 houses
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Hired amplifiers were procured to skewer a man who could not defend himself. In the media, he was a thief, a rogue & much worse. Digital lynch mobs, many of them amplifier bots with transparent ends to serve created a mood music with a life of its own
#OnnoghenTrial

Given the opportunity to back up its claims, the govt's case at the #OnnoghenTrial has turned out to be a despicable, venal fantasy. There were no billions, no 55 houses, no fantasy FOREX in make-believe domicillary accounts. A govt decided to make up lies against an innocent man

By way of a useful comparison based evidence from the #OnnoghenTrial, Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen, who has spent a lifetime in private legal practice & judicial public service, is much poorer than Yusuf @MBuhari who has just been "awarded" his #NYSC discharge certificate.

If the #OnnoghenTrial showed that the Chief Justice had anything like the assets the govt originally claimed, he'd surely have had a case to answer. Now it's clear that was all made up, the govt has a burden to investigate & explain how it chose to mislead #Nigerians & the world

In the end, it's difficult for the @MBuhari govt to escape the perception that it conspired to orchestrate #OnnoghenTrial because of personal animus towards the man related to his origins & to factors that had nothing to do with his performance on his job. Govts shd not do that.

The damage done by the @Mbuhari administration in the manner that it procured the #OnnoghenTrial will take more than a generation to address. This is more than about 1 man & his fate. If a govt can conspire to pervert institutions as it has done in this case, no one is safe!