Face Of Waziri-Nigeria, an NGO, stated significant evidence have emerged of a desperate campaign to persuade at least two of the Justices at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, PEPT, to quit in order to destabilise the judicial panel.
Comrade Bukky Adeniyi, the group's Director General, revealed this in a statement made in Lagos on Thursday, July 20, 2023
According to Adeniyi, "given the existing legal provison which necessitates a replacement and retrieval in the event the Justices resign and consequently translates to buying time beyond that stipulated by the Supreme Court, is a ploy to make the case statute barred and of no effect."
According to FOWN, "there is a covert move by President Bola Tinubu to make the Justices resign, with the goal of ensuring the time frame of 180 days elapses before the case is concluded by the panel."¹
"The Justice has not resigned at the moment, but we have it on good authority that Mr. Tinubu and his team are seriously working hard to threaten and frustrate one or two of them to resign so that the panel will be devoid of jurisdiction at this stage," Adeniyi said.
"This will result in replacement and retrieval from scratch." In that instance, it will be statute barred once it has passed the 180-day limit set by the constitution, and the case will be closed because the Supreme Court cannot extend time.
"At the moment, Tinubu is putting pressure on the tribunal." He wants two of the panel's judges to withdraw or resign.
"A particular Governor, formerly of the PDP but now of the APC, with Tinubu's blessing from the South-South, is delegated to use a document of money exchange between the government of that state and one or two of the justices in the past for judgement favour then, as proof to harass and intimidate the justices to shift the tribunal's judgement in their favour."
The group did, however, ask a question about the situation: "How do you explain if such money exchange occurred in the past, to now want to use such to blackmail the Justice?"
"Did the Justice or Justices demand money from the governor at the time, or was it given as a thank you?" In any instance, the tribunal matter is distinct from whatever previous transaction they had jointly.
"He criticised the recent move by the counsel to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to subpoena the institution in order to ascertain the authenticity of documents relating to his attendance at Chicago State University."
"Abubakar had requested the court in a petition dated July 11, 2023, by and through his solicitors, to "issue subpoena commanding a corporate representative of Resident Chicago State University (Respondent) to appear for deposition upon oral examination of the topics set out in Exhibit A attached hereto at the offices of Dechert LLP at 35 West Wacker Drive, Suite 3400, Chicago, Illinois 60601 on July 21, 2023 at 9.00am"
The respondent is expected to, among other things, "testify and give evidences and in support thereof states as follows: "That non-party Bola Ahmed Tinubu is currently the President of Nigeria and is facing various court proceedings concerning his election and the authenticity of documents relating to his attendance at Chicago State University; "That Mr. Tinubu had previously asserted that he attended various educational institutions located in the Chicago area, including Chicago State University; "That Mr. Tinubu had previously asserted that he attended.