ATIKU VS BUHARI: Timi Frank alleges of ‘unholy alliance’ between CJN, presidency

A former deputy national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, on Wednesday raised the alarm over an alleged secret meeting between the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Muhammad and the presidency.

This was ahead of the setting up of a Supreme Court panel to hear Atiku Abubakar’s appeal.

Atiku, the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is challenging the tribunal ruling that affirmed President Muhammadu Buhari as the winner of the 2019 presidential election at the Supreme Court.

But in a statement, Frank claimed that an “unholy alliance” between the CJN and the presidency was causing the delay in constitution of the panel.

Noting that such move was dangerous for Nigeria’s democracy, Frank urged the CJN to constitute a panel to determine Atiku’s case based on the tradition of seniority and stop “consulting or waiting on the advice of the presidency.”

He said it amounted to injustice for the CJN to delay the constitution of the 7-man panel more than a month after the presidential candidate of the PDP appealed the Presidential Tribunal’s judgment.

The statement read in part, “We are reliably informed of an unholy alliance between the CJN and the presidency which is causing the delay in constitution of the panel, such move is dangerous for Nigeria’s democracy.

“The CJN must respect the normal tradition of following the order of seniority in selecting the justices. Even all the times Buhari himself had approached the Supreme Court in the past, order of seniority was followed. The precedent is set contrary to the ongoing shopping for judges who will be favourable to the whims and caprices of General Buhari and the APC.

“If anything contrary to the tradition of order of seniority which we all know is allowed to happen, that will confirm that the CJN has bowed to the pressure from the presidency and that will also confirm the allegation made earlier by the CUPP.

“It is obvious that the judiciary under the current administration seems to have been caged but it is high time our judiciary showed courage. The whole world witnessed the courage showed by the Supreme Court in the United Kingdom recently. Even in Africa, Kenya’s Supreme Court has also proven to be independent when it recently nullified presidential election of a sitting president, Nigeria’s judiciary must prove its worth in this case.

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“A situation where the CJN has to consult the presidency or the AGF before a panel is constituted does not show an independent judiciary.”

Frank, therefore, called on the attention of the international community on the matter, adding that in a democratic system once justice is not seen to be given, anarchy and chaos will be the order of the day.

He said, “Nigeria is greater and more important than General Buhari and his cabal. I, therefore, call on the good people of Nigeria, the African Union (AU) and other International Community to ensure that the independence of the judiciary must remain sacrosanct and inalienable, and compel Justice Tanko to do the right thing.”

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