TMG Frowns at Alleged Attempts By Politicians to Undermine Tribunals’ Cases
Emameh Gabriel in Abuja
The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), has alleged attempts by politicians and some lawyers in their teams to pressurise the judiciary into averting justice at election petition tribunals across the country.
TMG, including other civil society organisations, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), also described the attempt as an onslaught against the judiciary.
The group said, “If allowed to persist, it would further erode citizens trust in the judicial system to deliver justice, adding that it’s important to protect the judiciary from politics and corrupt politicians.
The group said it was even more disheartening to see that this was happening at a time “when democracy has become more threatened in the West African subregion largely as a result of corrupt actions of some politicians.
They noted that the need to thread even more carefully to ensure the judicial processes to addressing petitions from the 2023 election are seen to be fair has been disregarded.
TMG said the “revelation on political efforts to subvert justice through bribery to justices and staff of courts as revealed by the Chairperson of the Kano State Election Petition Tribunal is of great worry to every concerned citizen of Nigeria.
“While the action of the Kano State election petition chairperson in coming out to speak out must be commended, one cannot hold back from imagining the amount of corruption that would have already trailed the tribunals across the country.
“At this point in time, when the outcome of the 2023 election has resulted to unprecedented number of cases before the courts, the judiciary has inevitably been positioned as the last bearer of the light of rule of law and has been left with the task of deepening democracy in Nigeria through fair hearings and impartial judgements.
“While it is important for investigative journalism and civic activism to rise up to protect the judiciary from the corrupt actions of politicians, it is also crucial for the judiciary to protect itself as an independent arm of government by deploying every available legal provision within it means to ensure it is not allowed to be ridiculed by the politicians.”
According to it, while Nigeria, through its chairmanship of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) has taken upon itself the saddle of restoring democracy to the Republic of Niger, it must be pointed out that charity begins at home.
