OSUN: Presidency Blasts Atiku Over Remark On Supreme Court Ruling

The Presidency has berated Nigeria’s former Vice President and 2019 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, over his remarks on the Supreme Court ruling affirming the election of Mr Gboyega Oyetola as governor of Osun State.

THE WHISTLER had reported that PDP’s candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke, lost his bid to have the courts overturn the victory of APC’s Oyetola in the 2018 Osun governorship poll to favour him.

Five out of a seven-man panel of the Supreme Court that delivered the final verdict in PDP’s suit challenging the outcome of the Osun governorship election had affirmed APC’s victory in the poll. The two others, however, disagreed that the APC won the election.

In his reaction to the final ruling, Atiku had said: “I urge the nation’s judiciary to take a pulse of the nation and reflect it. In their hands, God has placed a great responsibility. The duty to ensure that justice is done, irrespective of the pressure to do otherwise, by the powers that be.”

Reacting to Atiku’s comment, however, the Presidency said if finds the former Vice President’s  remarks “very ridiculous, and even comical.”

In a statement issued by presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, the Presidency said Atiku cannot “Browbeat the Judiciary”.

The Presidency said, “Many things fly in the face of logic, reason, and legality in this portion of the statement. Alhaji Abubakar urged the judiciary to reflect the pulse of the nation in their judgments. Learned people know that the judiciary comes to conclusions drawing from matters of law placed before it, and not sentiments, or so-called “pulse of the nation.”

“A pertinent question is: how does the judiciary gauge the pulse of the nation? Is it even positioned to do such? Is the judiciary established for that purpose, or to dispense justice, even if the Heavens fall?

“Again, there is insinuation of inducement in the statement, when the PDP candidate said the judiciary should ensure justice is done, “irrespective of the pressure to do otherwise, by the powers that be.”

“We see this as an attempt to browbeat the judiciary, thus causing it to entertain sentiment in the ongoing petition on the presidential election before the tribunal. If anybody has the tendency or proclivity to put pressure on the judiciary, Nigerians know where the finger points, and it is definitely not at President Muhammadu Buhari. This was a man who had thrice taken his electoral challenges to the judiciary, up to the Supreme Court. And not once was he accused of trying to influence the process, or put pressure on the courts.

“When the All Progressives Congress (APC) lost Zamfara and Rivers States, arising from judicial proclamations, then, there was no “pressure to do otherwise, by the powers that be.” But now that the victory of the party in Osun was upheld, there is insinuation of pressure from those who have never learnt to play straight.

“President Buhari has always been committed to fair play, which was clearly evident in the last general elections. He remains committed to even-handedness and justice always,” it said.