Ugochinyere said, “We have it on good authority that the APC-led
federal government has been mounting undue pressure on the Chief
Justice of Nigeria and indeed the entire court to accept a handpicked
panel and jettison the age-long tradition of the court of selecting
the most senior justices of the Supreme Court to sit on the panel."
The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has alleged that the
President Muhammadu Buhari regime is mounting undue pressure on the
Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Muhammad, to accept a list of
some persons allegedly selected to be members of the presidential
election petition appeal tribunal.
At a press conference held in Abuja on Thursday, the spokesman for
CUPP, Ikenga Ugochinyere, said the coalition would reject any moves to
handpick justices to seat on Atiku Abubakar’s appeal.
Atiku was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during
the 2019 presidential election. He had approached the Supreme Court to
appeal the judgment of the Court of Appeal which dismissed his
petition against the declaration of Buhari as the winner.
Ugochinyere said, “We have it on good authority that the APC-led
federal government has been mounting undue pressure on the Chief
Justice of Nigeria and indeed the entire court to accept a handpicked
panel and jettison the age-long tradition of the court of selecting
the most senior justices of the Supreme Court to sit on the panel.
“The disquiet and bad blood caused by the APC in the Supreme Court now
is a clear desecration of the highest temple of justice in the land.
The opposition and most Nigerians will not accept a handpicked panel,
neither will the pronouncement of such panel command the requite
respect and confidence of the people of Nigeria and we in the
opposition."
He added, “The Supreme Court is supreme and its words must be for the
protection of the society and the people and the law. A grave error
was done at Appeal Court and the nation is waiting to see how a man
who violated the Electoral Act and was supposed to have been
disqualified managed to survive at the Appeal Court. That court failed
in both the issues of law and issues of national interest.”