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The opposition party is tearing into President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling APC for harassing and intimidating Nigerian judges into fanning their interests.
The Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) enthusiast and venomous critic of the Buhari-led administration, Timi Frank, nonetheless express hope in the nation's Supreme Court Justices whom he said remain credible and truly the last hope of the common man.
The former deputy national publicity secretary of governing party(APC) was reacting to the Monday ruling of the Presidential Election Tribunal which denied PDP and its 2019 presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, access to inspect the Nigeria's electoral body's server which they claimed was used to collate results of the controversial February 23 presidential election.
INEC denied using the server for the 2019 elections, citing delay in funds and controversy sorrounding the Electoral (Amendment) Act as reasons for not transmitting and collating result electronically.
It was on this basis that the Tribunal ruled that since parties (INEC, APC) to the petition by Atiku and PDP were disputing the existence or otherwise of an INEC central server, it was wrong for it to grant the petitioners’ request to inspect a server, whose existence, usage or otherwise was being disputed by parties.
But, Frank said on Tuesday that President Buhari “has resorted to using various security agencies to openly intimidate some of the judges into doing its bidding.”
To buttress his claims, the Bayelsa-born critic cited media reports quoting the President of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Paul Usoro, who declared that judges are afraid of performing their duties as expected due to fear and intimidation from the executive arm of government.
The report quoted the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) as saying: “Our Judges are threatened, intimidated and blackmailed mostly by the executive arm of government and their agencies both at the federal and state levels.
“Our judges cannot deliver justice under a climate of fear and intimidation. Justice thrives where and when there is an independent judiciary. There can be no such independence when there is no security of tenure for our Judges. There can be no independence of the judiciary when our judges are intimidated, threatened and blackmailed by state agencies and their officials.
“There can be no independence of the judiciary when our judges are actively coerced by state officials to think and reason only in the manner that those officials and, presumably, government want them to think.”
The PDP ally said: “We are informing Nigerians that even the ruling of the Appeal Court was long written according to a script handed down by the ruling APC, but Nigerians respect and believe in the Supreme Court.
“We hope that the Supreme Court, which is the last hope of all oppressed Nigerians will summon courage to stand by the people and decide the present appeal based on the overwhelming evidence before the court and the verdict of credible local and international organisations like the European Union, National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), among others.”
Frank alleged that the President is currently plotting to appoint five new Supreme Court judges who will eventually be part of the panel to determine the presidential election Petition appeal “the same way it did at the Appeal Court.”
The statement cautioned the Judges to bear in mind that they are Nigerians as well and that they will all retire one day. “The good thing is that the law of justice has never failed no matter how long.
Those who succumb to pressure to do evil now should not forget that the repercussions of such evil collusion will ultimately catch up with them in future – directly or indirectly.
“Nigerians are patiently waiting for Atiku to rescue them from the shackles of insecurity, hunger, unmployment, directionless government and government of cabals,” Frank stated. He called on Nigerians, especialy the political stakeholders, opposition party chieftains, human rights activists and members of judiciary not to keep quiet in the face of this burgeoning evil if Nigeria is to move forward.
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