The Presidency has said that President Muhammadu Buhari will be the last person to authorise anybody to induce a judge to pervert the course of justice.
Recall that two Supreme Court Justices, Inyang Okoro and Sylvester Ugwuta have accused former governor of Rivers state and Minister of Transporataion, Rotimi Amaechi of attempts to manipulate court judgments in favour of the All Progressives Congress. Justice Okoro said that during the visit, Amaechi said that President Buhari and the APC mandated him (Amaechi ) to inform Justice Inyang that they must win their election Appeals in respect of Rivers , Akwa Ibom and Abia States at all cost.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said this in a statement yesterday.
Shehu, therefore, advised journalists and other Nigerians to stop linking President Buhari to the “legal travails of some recently arrested Judges in the country.”
He said despite Buhari’s personal familiarity with some judges, he (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 during the periods in question.
Shehu also stated that as a politician, the president had never suggested to his lawyers to approach any judge for assistance to win his cases.
According to the presidential aide, Buhari 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 his/her innocence.
The presidential spokesman noted that the purpose of the law is to punish the guilty and acquit the innocent, adding that the law projects the rights of everyone.
Shehu stressed that the president does not have any powers to force any court to convict anybody who is innocent, saying that in a democratic society, that cannot happen without resistance by the people.
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