President Tinubu And His Team Pressurizing Two Presidential Tribunal Judges To Resign – NGO Alleges

The Face Of Waziri-Nigeria (FOWN), a non-governmental organization, has raised concerns on Thursday that there are confidential efforts allegedly underway to pressure at least two Justices at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) into resigning, potentially jeopardizing the judicial panel’s effectiveness.

The group’s Director General, Comrade Bukky Adeniyi, expressed these concerns in a statement released in Lagos.

Adeniyi emphasized the potential implications of such resignations, noting that the required replacement process would likely extend beyond the time period stipulated by the Supreme Court.

He believes this could be a calculated strategy to render the case void due to exceeding its statute of limitations.

FOWN alleged that there is a hidden attempt by President Bola Tinubu to encourage the Justices to resign, an action seemingly aimed at ensuring that the 180-day time frame for concluding the case expires before the panel can reach a resolution.

Adeniyi said, “The Justice has not resigned at the moment but we have it on good authority that Mr. Tinubu and his team are seriously working hard to threaten and frustrate one or two of them to resign so that the panel will be bereft of jurisdiction at this stage.

“This will lead to replacement and retrieval de novo. In which case, it will be statute barred once outside the 180 days stipulated by the constitution and attendant of which ends the matter, because Supreme Court cannot extend time.

“At the moment Tinubu is pressuring the tribunal. He wants two judges to withdraw or resign from the panel.

“A particular Governor formerly with the PDP but now in APC sequel Tinubu’s blessing from South-South is delegated to use document of money exchange between the government of that state and one or two of the justices in the past for judgement favour then, as a proof to harass and intimidate the justices to shift the judgement of the tribunal in their favour.”

The group, however raised some poser on the matter, “How do you explain if at all such money exchange occurred in the past, to now want to use such to blackmail the Justice.?

“Did the Justice or justices demands for money the governor gave then or was given as thank you? In whatever case, the tribunal matter is different from whatever transaction they had together in the past.

“He faulted the recent move by the counsel to the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar to subpoena the institution on the need to ascertain authenticity of documents relating to his attendance at Chicago State University.

“Abubakar had in a petition dated July 11, 2023, by and through his attorneys, requested the court to “issue subpoena commanding a corporate representative of Resident Chicago State University (Respondent) to appear for deposition upon oral examination of the topics set forth in Exhibit A attached hereto at the offices of Dechert LLP at 35 West Wacker Drive, Suite 3400, Chicago, Illinois 60601 on July 21, 2023 at 9.00am”

The respondent is expected among other things to, “testify and give evidences and in support thereof states as follows: “That non-party Bola Ahmed Tinubu is currently the President of Nigeria and is facing various court proceedings concerning his election and the authenticity of documents relating to his attendance at Chicago State University; “That Mr. Tinubu had previously asserted that he attended various educational institutions located in the Chicago area, including but not limited to Chicago State University; “To test the truth and veracity of Mr. Tinubu’s assertions, Petitioner must depose a corporate representative of Respondent Chicago State University (Respondent) regarding educational record or lack thereof, from respondent,” among others.”