Tribunal: Tinubu had no conversation with CJN- APC

Akinwande Soji-Ojo

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has debunked the claims of United States-based blogger, Jackson Ude, over the ongoing cases at the presidential tribunal.

Ude had in a tweet claimed that the Chief Judge of Nigeria(CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, had during a telephone conversation told President Bola Tinubu to go and prepare for a rerun election.

But the APC, in a statement issued but its National Publicity Secretary, Barr Felix Morka, described the tweet as “mischievous and intentionally misleading.”

“We have become aware of a decidedly mischievous and intentionally misleading tweet by one Mr Jackson Ude. He alleged that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was in telephone conversation with the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, in which the CJN purportedly told the President and APC to prepare for a presidential election rerun.

“It is disturbing and disgraceful for Mr Ude to fabricate a falsehood of this kind on a matter of serious national importance that is actively under review by the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC).

“President Tinubu and our party won the last Presidential election without a doubt, and do not have any need to engage in side conversations with the CJN regarding pending petitions before the PEPC. As the core democrat that he is, the President respects the right of aggrieved candidates in the election to seek redress for any grievances that they may have. The Constitution and Electoral Act provide effective guarantees of that right,” he said.

Morka added that the PEPC should be afforded the time and space to perform its important constitutional and statutory duty of adjudicating and delivering a verdict in the matter without needlessly calling the integrity of the judges into question.

“Falsehood and conjecture by the likes of Mr. Ude only aim to inflame political passions, create doubt and panic, and preemptively undermine the verdict of the courts in this important matter.

“We are confident that Nigerians are smarter and more discerning than to be affected by this opposition brand of tasteless and crass mercenary expedition,” he added.