ALLEGED AMEACHI'S BROBE: Presidency Finally Breaks Silence On Alleged 'Buhari's Authorized Amaechi Judge Bribe' Scandal; Issues Official Statement
The Presidency on Sunday broke its silence on the allegations of
inducements raised by two of the judges arrested recently, saying
President Muhammadu Buhari would never authorise anybody to induce a
judge to pervert the course of justice.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity,
Garba Shehu, said this in a statement made available to journalists in
Abuja.
It was the Presidency’s first official reaction to two of the embattled
judges who claimed that the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi,
approached them allegedly on the instruction of the President to
influence decisions on election cases.
A Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, who was one of
those arrested by the Department of State Services had in a letter
dated October 18, and addressed to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice
Mahmud Mohammed, claimed that Amaechi had impressed it upon him that
the President was interested in the judgments of the Supreme Court on
Ekiti and Rivers elections going in favour of the All Progressives
Congress.
Another Justice, Justice John Okoro, had also claimed that Amaechi told
him that the President and the APC mandated him to inform him (Okoro)
that they must win their election appeals in Rivers, Akwa Inom and Abia
States at all costs.
But Shehu, in the statement, advised journalists and other Nigerians to stop linking Buhari to the travails of the judges.
“President Muhammadu Buhari would be the last person to authorise
anybody to induce a judge to pervert the course of justice,” he said.
The presidential aide noted that despite his personal familiarity with
some court judges, the President had never used that familiarity to seek
favours from them from 2003, 2007 and 2011 when he was challenging the
fairness of the presidential election results, from the lowest to the
highest courts in the land.
He said as a politician, Buhari had never suggested to his lawyers to approach any judge for assistance to win his cases.
He said the President lives by this principle and has never deviated from it.
On the fate of the judges facing corruption allegations, Shehu said the
President does not tell courts how to do their jobs and that anybody
accused of corruption is protected by law to defend their innocence.
He explained that the purpose of the law is to punish the guilty and
acquit the innocent, noting that the law protects the rights everyone.
Shehu said the President did not have any powers to force any court to
convict anybody who is innocent, arguing that in a democratic society,
that cannot happen without resistance by the people
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