A political activist and former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of
the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, has called on
the international community to place visa restrictions on the five
justices of the Appeal Court that presided over the Presidential
Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) over gross miscarriage of justice and
flagrant breach of the Constitution.
Frank also called on the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the Supreme
to review the tribunal’s ruling and sanction the Justices for deliberate
perversion of justice.
Reacting to the recent judgement of the PEPT in favour of the
presidential candidate of the APC, Frank in a statement made available
to newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, said it was obvious that the judgement
was written by elements in the presidency.
He said that he is convinced that the PEPT’s ruling that it is not
necessary to present certificates to contest for political offices in
the country has created problem for the nation’s education sector as it
would now be difficult to convince children to go to school or tell
those in school to study hard to attain excellence in their educational
pursuit.
He however, called on the United States of America (USA), United
Kingdom, United Nations and other critical democratic stakeholders to
take a punitive step against the five justices led by Justice Mohammed
Lawal Garba, by placing them and their families on visa ban.
According to Frank, both local and international election observers had
raised questions about the conduct of the election, particularly
unjustified interventions by security forces in favuor of Buhari and the
APC, “they said the voting process wasn’t transparent and the Nigerian
civil society group, a coalition made up of over 70 civic groups that
monitored the balloting also said the outcome wasn’t credible.
“Yet the presiding justices of the PEPT in giving their judgment said
the election was credible and dismissed the petition of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) and their Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar.
“This outcome was was only possible because the judgement was written by
the presidency.
“I therefore call on the international community such as the US, UK, EU
and others to place a visa ban on the five justices of the PEPT and
members of their immediate family.
“The onus is on the Supreme Court to show Nigerians and the world that
the judiciary is indeed the hope of the common man; it is incumbent on
them to show that they are indeed independent and have not been
colonized and made a rubber stamp of the executive in view of the
unthinkable verdict
of the five justices of the PEPT.
“They simply turned the judiciary into a black market where justice was
measured and sold to the highest bidder. The executive has always
accused the judiciary of corruption and the five justices have just
confirmed it by this judgment.
“They have brought shame on the Nigerian judiciary and must be
sanctioned appropriately by the NJC to serve as a deterrent to others
and restore sanity to the judiciary,” he said.
Frank called on the international community to help Nigeria, saying the
country “is at a point where it may have civil unrest or a break up as
many regions have resumed agitation following the hope-dashing verdict.
“The international community should place visa restrictions on these
five Justices like they have done to some corrupt politicians that
participated in rigging the last general elections.
“Since these five Justices have traded away the opportunity to redeem
the country’s democracy by ridding it of electoral fraud, the Supreme
Court must now be courageous enough to rectify this judicial fraud in
order to save Nigeria from collapse. Show Nigerians that the judiciary
is still the last hope of the common man,” Frank said.
He called on the apex court to save the the Judiciary from the onslaught
against it by the executive, and failure to reverse PEPT’s ridiculous
verdict would inevitably render the judiciary toothless.