Group warns against intimidation of Kano tribunal judges

A pressure group under the umbrella of Stand Up Nigeria on Saturday called on the leadership of the New Nigeria Peoples Party to warn its supporters to desist from intimidating the judiciary.

This was even as the group appealed to the National Judicial Council to consider relocating the Kano Division of its Court of Appeal to Abuja immediately to ensure that no justice comes under attack.

The warning is coming in the aftermath of the violence and 24-hour curfew that greeted the sacking of Kano governor, Abba Yusuf, by the State Election Petition Tribunal.

The tribunal sacked Yusuf on September 20 and affirmed the governorship candidate of APC, Nasiru Gawuna, as the winner of the March 18 governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

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He added, “We condemn the leadership of the New Nigeria People’s Party whose supporters have been threatening judges to understand that the attempt to woo the judiciary through intimidation would amount to miscarriage of justice as the law is blind with a sharp sword. No one has a monopoly of violence.

“Abuja is a safe haven. Nobody can come and misbehave in Abuja. We are telling the NJC that any state that some elements have proven to be toxic, threatening the judges, then the NJC should relocate the judges to Abuja.”

In its reaction, the new National Publicity Secretary of the party, Yakubu Shendam, denied that their supporters were bullying the judges.

Shendam also questioned the rationale behind giving judgment via electronically via zoom as the Kano State election tribunal did when there was no evidence of pandemic in the country.

He added, “How can the justices claim they were insulted? We are talking about people who were not even around and only gave judgment on Zoom. Were they insulted electronically? How can you take judgment on sensitive matters to Zoom where you cannot physically assess the body language of the people?

“This is something we have not heard anywhere before in the history of Nigeria. The mindset behind that is something worrisome to our judicial system. We are not even in any pandemic where you will say there is a Covid-19 somewhere.”