Our reporter/ Barely 24 hours after the Supreme Court debunked reports of a phone conversation between the CJN and President Bola Tinubu to sway the outcome of the presidential election petition, the Nigeria judicial council on Tuesday denied reports that Boloukuoromo Ugo, justice of the court of appeal, has withdrawn his membership of the presidential election petition court.
The director of information, National Judicial Council (NJC), Seyi Oye made the disclosure via a statement on Thursday.
The social was agog with the news of Justice Ugo’s resignation following a tweet by a Twitter user, Sani, who claimed that Ugo tendered his resignation after citing “demands to knee-cap democracy”.
According to the tweet, the judge, in his letter, stated that he was asked to “cripple the independence of the judiciary” by ruling in favour of a certain political candidate believed to be President Bola Tinubu.
“Justice Ugo’s resignation has caused a serious uproar and a setback to the activities of the presidential election petition court,” Sani alleged.
But reacting to the development, Oye described the claims as “falsehood from the pit of hell”
Oye told a national online publication that the allegations should be disregarded, adding that the aim is to distract Nigerians and set the tone for a narrative, in the event that the court’s judgement doesn’t favour the rumour peddlers.
Oye said the presidential election petition court will issue a formal statement to address the issues.
When contacted, Josephine Ekperobe, secretary of the presidential tribunal, said the story is “fake”.
She said she spent time with the judge yesterday and that as of Thursday, she is yet to be informed of the judge’s purported resignation.
Ugo’s alleged resignation is coming on the heels of Wednesday’s report that the president spoke with Olukayode Ariwoola, chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), over the outcome of the presidential election petition.
Both the supreme court and ruling APC denied that such conversation took place.
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