Supreme Court breaks silence on APC’s petition against its judges

The Supreme Court management on Thursday made a clarification about the reported petition written by the All Progressives Congress against some Supreme Court judges concerning the lingering Imo North senatorial election legal tussle.

A statement by the Supreme Court’s Director of Press and Information, Festus Akande, said Abdu Aboki, a member of the five-man panel hearing a case concerning the senatorial election, was not named in the petition as earlier announced by another judge of the court on Tuesday

It will be recalled that Dattijo Muhammad, leading the five-man panel of the apex court, announced at Tuesday’s proceedings that the APC, in its petition, accused him and two of his other colleagues of holding a secret meeting with top officials of rival Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to subvert justice.

Mr. Muhammad, who denied the allegation, gave the names of the two other colleagues accused in the APC’s petition to be Helen Ogunwumiju and Abdu Aboki.

The Supreme Court judge, who pointedly claimed that the petition was authored by the Governor of Yobe State, doubling as the acting chairperson of the APC, Mai-Mala Buni, also challenged the politician to come forward to substantiate the allegation.

But the apex court’s director of information said there was a need to keep the record straight and admonish litigants, particularly politicians on the need to be decent in their conducts, even though Mr. Buni had issued a disclaimer of the petition.

Also denying the allegation contained in the petition on behalf of the apex court justices, Mr. Akande said, “The Honourable Justices of the Supreme Court who have always been working assiduously to promote the rule of law, impartial and seamless dispensation of justice don’t deserve such orchestrated mudslinging, to say the least.”

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared APC the winner of the poll but refused to announce the winning candidate due to conflicting court orders on the party’s candidacy for the poll.

The two leading aspirants on the platform of the party, Ifeanyi Ararume and Chukwuemeka Ibezim, are engaged in legal battles over who is the ruling party’s flag bearer.

Press release