COVID-19: No Cause For Alarm Over CJN Tanko’s Health – Supreme Court

The Director of Press and Information of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Akande Festus, on Tuesday, said there was no cause for alarm over the health of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammad.

Reports emerged on Tuesday that Muhammad had contracted COVID-19 and had been flown out to Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, for treatment.

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But Festus, in a statement made available to THE WHISTLER, refuted reports that Muhammad was in a bad state of health. He, however, did not deny that the CJN had contracted COVID-19.

The full statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to the story currently in circulation with the above caption which was published on page 38 of This Day newspaper on Tuesday 15th December, 2020.

“It’s necessary to state that there’s no iota of truth in the claim being peddled by the publication, as there hasn’t been any indication made public or otherwise that has shown any anxiety over the CJN’s health.

“This is obviously a product of the imagination of the author of the concocted story which has literally failed the test of sound, investigative journalism as no form of enquiries were made by the Reporter before hitting the public domain with this baggage of falsehoods to mislead the public by crying wolf where none is in sight.

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“The Hon. CJN, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad being unavoidably absent at a function is not enough to plunge into this premeditated conclusion that there’s now “anxiety over his health.” The other aspect of this monumental falsehood is the erroneous claim that the “CJN has not been seen in public for weeks.” We are still at a loss as to where the Reporter got that malicious information from, as the CJN has been very active and even presided over the swearing in of the newly appointed Justices of the Supreme Court a few weeks back.

“It should be noted that no business survives on falsehood. You cannot whip up sentiments through sensational reports to attract traffic to your media organisation. Certainly, such practice leads to nowhere. We must eschew acts capable of eroding our good values at all times.”

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