By Kamil Opeyemi
President Bola Tinubu has said that it is out of logic for the defeated presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the last general election Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to allege that the government is intimidating the judiciary.
In a statement by Dele Alake, Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, Tinubu said it is laughable to read argument by Atiku.
“It is obvious that having been thoroughly defeated by the All Progressives Congress and now President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the former Vice President has not fully recovered from the shock of defeat,” Alake said
He accused Atiku of “mischievously” raking up another round of inanities that offend basic logic and rational thinking.
He went further, “In the ill-thought out and illogical statement, Alhaji Atiku accused the current administration of the governing APC of plotting to undermine the judiciary without providing any shred of evidence. Apart from innuendos, insinuations and outright lies contained in the said press statement, the former Vice President Atiku didn’t put forward any convincing argument to support his claims on how the President Tinubu-led administration and APC sought to undercut, undermine and compromise the judiciary.”
He said if Atiku believes in democracy and the sanctity of the Judiciary, he would not engage in making spurious and wild allegations aimed at disparaging and discrediting an important arm of government that should serve as the bulwark for our democracy.
“He shamelessly resorted to this cheap attempt to intimidate and blackmail the Judiciary even when he is party to a case before the Presidential Election Petition Court.
“Let it be said that when it comes to matters of fighting for democracy and democratic ideals, rule of law and independence of Judiciary in Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu stands shoulder above Atiku Abubakar. When President Tinubu was leading the charge against the emasculation of the judiciary and promoting the sanctity of rule of law as the building block for good governance as Governor of Lagos State between 1999-2007, under a PDP central government, Alhaji Atiku was nowhere to be found.
“It is on record and to his eternal credit that President Tinubu, through the instrumentality of the law and Judiciary, successfully challenged many of the draconian and obnoxious decisions of the PDP-led Federal Government that trampled on the rights of the States as federating units. Lagos State under the leadership of the then Governor Tinubu won over 13 cases up to the Supreme Court against the hydra-headed PDP administration at the centre.
“No leader with such a sterling and enviable credential as a champion of rule of law, independence of judiciary like President Tinubu will ever contemplate undermining the Judiciary as alleged by Alhaji Atiku.
“President Tinubu won a free, fair and credible election. The February 25, 2023 Presidential election that produced him is the most transparent election ever conducted in Nigeria since 1999.
“President Tinubu and the APC absolutely have no reason to undermine the judiciary in the hope of any favourable judgement.”
Atiku had, in a statement by Paul Ibe, Atiku’s media adviser, said the APC and agents of Tinubu have “ceaselessly chosen to stand in the way of justice by making “catastrophic threats to anarchy if justice is not served according to their whims”.
Atiku accused the APC of plotting to intimidate the judiciary by harassing the judges involved in the petition and called on the international community to be alerted.
“The plot of the APC is simple: intimidate the judiciary, threaten judges with arrest so that they will bow to their will. This is a playbook from 2019 when they removed the CJN and then replaced him with Tanko Muhammad, who himself was later accused of corruption by his colleagues at the supreme court and resigned shamefully,” the statement reads.
“However, the APC government never went after Tanko Muhammad as they did in Onnoghen’s case because it was never about corruption but the election. The APC has, over the years, built a reputation for judiciary intimidation.