December 30, 2008
The exposé by SaharaReporters revealing a grand plot by justices of the Supreme Court and Umaru Yar'adua's regime may have changed the direction of the sitting yesterday in Abuja as lawyers to Abubakar Atiku and Muhammed Buhari presented strong arguments before the justices of the court. The usually boisterous Yar'Adua legal team seemed to have lost its confidence, unable to understand why the justices appeared serious and suddenly focused on the case. Sources in Yar'Adua's camp told SR that
The exposé by SaharaReporters revealing a grand plot by justices of the Supreme Court and Umaru Yar'adua's regime may have changed the direction of the sitting yesterday in Abuja as lawyers to Abubakar Atiku and Muhammed Buhari presented strong arguments before the justices of the court.
The usually boisterous Yar'Adua legal team seemed to have lost its confidence, unable to understand why the justices appeared serious and suddenly focused on the case. Sources in Yar'Adua's camp told SR that
they were shocked that their point man, Justice Aloysius Katsina–Alu did not utter a single word throughout the almost six hours process that led the court to adopt the address of all the parties.
Following SR revelations about a deal brokered by James Ibori and some former governors that would have seen the court rubber-stamp Yar'Adua's election, his spokesperson, Mr. Segun Adeniyi, boasted to the world that Buhari's case was weak and that the case was a forgone conclusion. His overconfident public outburst was followed by a press statement issued by a board member of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Anthony Anenih, also confidently bragging that Buhari's case was weak. Anenih heaped vitriolic attacks on Buhari for refusing to back down on his case. The attacks on Buhari continued with another PDP chieftain, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, who also towed the same line.
While Yar'Adua aides and top PDP chieftains attacked Buhari's endlessly, it was curious that they did not say a word about the Action Congress (AC) candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, apparently because of a parallel understanding with the former vice president to rejoin the PDP in a key position if he pulled out of the election petition litigation at the apex court. An AC source confirmed to one of our investigators on Thursday that Atiku was considering the offer. The same SR exposé seems to be forcing Atiku to back away from the deal as members of his party and progressive members of the public publicly question his principles and democratic credentials.
SR received anonymous inquiries from persons who claimed to represent two of the Supreme Court justices requesting detailed information about the way the justices were compromised. The inquirers tried to convince SR that the two justices, who did not want to be named, were not part of the deal to validate the election of Yar'Adua.
After the Supreme Court hearing, Yar'Adua and members of his inner political circle went back to the drawing board to work out another strategy on how to use the Supreme Court. Our sources said the inner circle was greatly worried about the question of unserialized ballot papers issued by INEC as the major source of concern for Yar'Adua's legal and political team as they met after the Supreme Court hearing.
They agreed on a few points of action to stave off any feeling of weakness in the government by requesting that Yar'Adua forgo any medical treatments that will see him leave Nigeria before December 2008, when the court is expected to give its final ruling. The group also detailed Yar'Adua's honorary special adviser on legal matters, Wale Babalakin (SAN) to work on Justice Oguntade, while Justice Uwais and the former governors were told to keep working on their various targets.
The usually boisterous Yar'Adua legal team seemed to have lost its confidence, unable to understand why the justices appeared serious and suddenly focused on the case. Sources in Yar'Adua's camp told SR that
they were shocked that their point man, Justice Aloysius Katsina–Alu did not utter a single word throughout the almost six hours process that led the court to adopt the address of all the parties.
Following SR revelations about a deal brokered by James Ibori and some former governors that would have seen the court rubber-stamp Yar'Adua's election, his spokesperson, Mr. Segun Adeniyi, boasted to the world that Buhari's case was weak and that the case was a forgone conclusion. His overconfident public outburst was followed by a press statement issued by a board member of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Anthony Anenih, also confidently bragging that Buhari's case was weak. Anenih heaped vitriolic attacks on Buhari for refusing to back down on his case. The attacks on Buhari continued with another PDP chieftain, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, who also towed the same line.
While Yar'Adua aides and top PDP chieftains attacked Buhari's endlessly, it was curious that they did not say a word about the Action Congress (AC) candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, apparently because of a parallel understanding with the former vice president to rejoin the PDP in a key position if he pulled out of the election petition litigation at the apex court. An AC source confirmed to one of our investigators on Thursday that Atiku was considering the offer. The same SR exposé seems to be forcing Atiku to back away from the deal as members of his party and progressive members of the public publicly question his principles and democratic credentials.
SR received anonymous inquiries from persons who claimed to represent two of the Supreme Court justices requesting detailed information about the way the justices were compromised. The inquirers tried to convince SR that the two justices, who did not want to be named, were not part of the deal to validate the election of Yar'Adua.
After the Supreme Court hearing, Yar'Adua and members of his inner political circle went back to the drawing board to work out another strategy on how to use the Supreme Court. Our sources said the inner circle was greatly worried about the question of unserialized ballot papers issued by INEC as the major source of concern for Yar'Adua's legal and political team as they met after the Supreme Court hearing.
They agreed on a few points of action to stave off any feeling of weakness in the government by requesting that Yar'Adua forgo any medical treatments that will see him leave Nigeria before December 2008, when the court is expected to give its final ruling. The group also detailed Yar'Adua's honorary special adviser on legal matters, Wale Babalakin (SAN) to work on Justice Oguntade, while Justice Uwais and the former governors were told to keep working on their various targets.
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