A leading pro-democracy and civil Rights advocacy group – HUMAN RIGHTS
\nWRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has condemned the chief justice
\nof Nigeria, Tanko Muhammad over his reported threats to deal with the
\ncoalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) even as the group warned
\nthe apex court’s jurist to stop dancing naked in the political arena.<\/p>\n
Besides, the pro-democracy platform faulted the ill-timed decision of
\nthe chief justice of Nigeria to embark on sensational media gymnastics
\nwhen his office took on the opposition politicians only because they
\nmade allegations about suspected shady deals with political undertones
\nwithin the hierarchy of the justice sector aimed at undermining the
\njudicious adjudication of the appeal instituted before the highest
\nnation’s court by the presidential candidate of the opposition People’s
\nDemocratic Party (PDP) and former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar
\nwho is challenging the decision of the presidential poll’s petition
\ntribunal awarding president Muhammadu Buhari over Atiku in the
\nlitigation challenging the 2019 presidential election.<\/p>\n
HURIWA said it was shocked that the usually conservative and taciturn
\nsupreme court of Nigeria seems to have breached her code of conduct by
\ndabbling into the arena of political and media war with a legitimate
\ngroup of aggrieved political opposition political parties who under the
\nconstitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression had voiced their
\nopinion on suspected foul play in the supreme court of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
The Rights group through the national coordinator comrade Emmanuel
\nOnwubiko and the national media affairs director Miss. Zainab Yusuf,
\nsaid the chief justice of Nigeria cannot intimidate, harass or threaten
\ncitizens of Nigeria in a constitutional democracy only for exercising
\ntheir constitutional rights just as the Rights group said the chief
\njustice of Nigeria could have exercised the highest circumspection by
\nacknowledging that clear conscience fears no accusations rather than to
\nclimb the high horses and to blow hot in a seemingly authoritarian mode
\nagainst a group of Nigerians threatening to prosecute them as if he is
\nallowed by law to be the prosecutor and the judge in his own case.<\/p>\n
“The office of the chief justice of Nigeria must steer clear of any
\nmedia showmanship that could graphically paint the temple of justice of
\nbeing controlled by persons with certain political affiliations or
\npersons who feel that they are above constructive criticisms which are
\nclearly guaranteed by numerous provisions of the chapter four of the
\n1999 constitution and primarily by section 39(1) which states that
\nNigerian citizens are entitled to freedom of expression including
\nfreedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information
\nwithout interference.”<\/p>\n
“We are in a very critical stage of our political life. The current
\nchief justice of Nigeria should be aware that his emergence as acting
\nchief justice of Nigeria through a disputed ex-parte order issued by a
\nquasi-judicial forum like the code of conduct tribunal presided over by
\na chairman who was once charged or accused by the Economic And Financial
\nCrimes Commission (EFCC) of alleged #10 million bribery scam, is
\ncontentious. This current chief justice of Nigeria must maintain decorum
\nand not be seen or perceived as a judicial official who is not open to
\nconstructive political debate. If the allegations made by the Coalition
\nof United Political Party (CUPP) are not accurate, let him provide his
\nown side of the story without issuing unnecessary threats.”<\/p>\n
“We in the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) are
\nalarmed by the reported threats to prosecute a set of Nigerians for
\nsimply exercising their fundamental freedoms and this authoritarian and
\ntotalitarian threats are coming from an unexpected quarter \u2013 the Temple
\nof justice that ought to be totally apolitical, professionally
\nindependent and to a very large extent, must be measured in all its
\nmedia outings so as not to be perceived as biased or even remain
\ninsulated from ‘channel noise’ in the media of mass communications.”<\/p>\n
HURIWA stated thus: “We are shocked and disappointed that the Chief
\nJustice of Nigeria seems to have opened a new Vista of publicly joining
\npoliticians in serial media squabbles. The choice of words by the
\nSupreme Court’s statement on Monday which described the CUPP’s
\nallegation as “blatant falsehood, misinformation and malicious rumor
\nbeing generously peddled by the Coalition of United Political Parties
\n(CUPP) through its spokesman, Imo Ugochinyere is discourteous and
\nuncharitable and should not emanate from such a respected quarter as the
\noffice of the Chief justice of Nigeria because the media Statement was
\nclearly couched in a manner that paints the hallowed temple of justice
\nas a platform and arena of political battles”.<\/p>\n
” The conclusion by the Chief justice of Nigeria that CUPP “is not and
\ncan never constitute itself into an agency of the Nigerian Judiciary or
\nassume the role of an alternate Supreme Court of Nigeria” has further
\nheightened the suspicions of political biasness on the part of the
\nholder of the office of the Chief justice of Nigeria. Is he not aware
\nthat even his predecessor in office got removed by a petition originated
\nby a private individual who is not an agent of the Supreme court of
\nNigeria? Or is the alleged politically motivated petitioner who got the
\nlast Chief justice of Nigeria Justice Onnoghen removed an agent of some
\ncabal inside the National judicial Council? This fact should tell the
\nChief justice of Nigeria that the Supreme court of Nigeria is not an
\nisland unto itself that information no matter how unbelievable and some
\ntimes credible, would\u00a0 be leaked to non-initiates from even within the
\nconfines of the office of the Chief justice of Nigeria. The statement
\nfrom the CJN said, “The constitution of any panel to sit on a matter in
\nthe court is the sole prerogative of the Supreme Court and it is never
\nan issue for the court to debate on the television or pages of
\nnewspapers. But the Chief Justice of Nigeria can not stop Nigerians from
\nmaking references to conventions and traditions in the selection of the
\npanel of justices to adjudicate over a matter of high public interest.
\nThe Supreme court of Nigeria is the apex of the judicial system and a
\nbranch of government specifically donated the judicial powers of the
\nfederation under section 6 0f the constitution. But under section 22,
\nthe media or indeed any citizen can lawfully exercise the
\nconstitutionally guaranteed freedoms to raise issues of high public
\ninterest happening within the Judiciary because the Judiciary is not
\nmade up of perfect beings in the form of Angels who are infallible and
\nwhose decisions or authority can not be analysed. Not at all. We are in
\na constitutional democracy and not in a monarchy, oligarchy or Tyranny
\nand we even have a binding national FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT.”<\/p>\n
“HURIWA\u00a0 believes that since the Supreme court of Nigeria with their own
\nmouth asserted that ‘We are not a political party or social club and
\nshould never be dragged into any form of baseless pedestrian discussions
\nthat will drive valid reasoning aground’ why then did it choose to dance
\nnaked in the political arena by brandishing threats against the group
\nonly for expressing their opinions?”.<\/p>\n
HURIWA is as interested as most citizens to ascertain that qualitative
\njustice delivery takes place and we welcome the assertion by the Chief
\njustice of Nigeria that as soon as the Presidential Appeal Panel is
\nconstituted, the public will be duly informed as the Supreme Court is
\nnot a secret society.\u00a0 But may we in all honesty tell his Lordship the
\nChief justice of Nigeria that he can’t use his high office to issue
\nthreats or intimidate Nigerians only for exercising their fundamental
\nfreedoms. If he feels that his rights are infringed or his standing in
\nthe society maligned, he can privately institute a libel suit but must
\nnever abuse his power by unleashing an avalanche of threats against
\nperceived dissenting voices.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A leading pro-democracy and civil Rights advocacy group – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has condemned the chief justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammad over his reported threats to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-news"],"yoast_head":"\n