The All Progressives Congress (APC) has charged President Goodluck
Jonathan to stop his Administration's brazen assault on the judiciary by
ordering the immediate withdrawal of the security agents deployed to
block the resumption of the courts in Ekiti, as ordered by the National
Judicial Commission (NJC), chaired by the Chief Justice of Nigeria.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by its National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the act of deploying
security agents to prevent the courts from re-opening as directed by the
NJC amounts to undermining the Judiciary and the Constitution.
''The Chief Justice of Nigeria, who is the head of the Judiciary,
ordered that courts in Ekiti must re-open and that security personnel
should do their jobs by providing security. Instead, the security agents
were willfully deployed to prevent the courts from opening. This
violation flies in the face of the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria. This undemocratic encroachment and erosion portend
great danger for our nation and constitute a threat to our
democracy.
''The Presidency is not constitutionally in any role able to second
guess, override or reverse the Judiciary. Our constitutional democracy
recognizes separation of powers, and the constitution clearly identifies
the scope of each organ’s powers and the head of each branch. This
administration’s conduct in frustrating an order of the Chief Justice of
Nigeria and the NJC is a new low in lawlessness and illegality. The
Presidency is implicitly conveying the message that it is unnecessary to
obey the Judiciary. The only result of such conduct
is anarchy and chaos.
''Essentially, the PDP-led Administration of President Jonathan is
holding litigants to ransom, preventing and perverting the course of
justice, and restricting access to the common man’s last hope. This
action is tantamount to arresting a judgment, something the bar and
bench consider with the utmost vile,'' it warned.
APC said the truth of the matter is that it is the Presidency that is
encouraging both the Ekiti State Commissioner of Police and the Brigade
Commander to thwart the directives of the NJC by deploying security
agents to seal the court, under the pretext of some phantom security
report.
The party said the entire plot is simply aimed at ensuring that the
courts will not be opened until Governor-elect Ayodele Fayose is sworn
in.
''The NJC has directed that the case against Fayose, being a
pre-election matter, should be completed before he is sworn in on
October.16th. The NJC further directed that the same judge that started
the matter should complete it, and then asked the Inspector-General of
Police to provide adequate security to enable the judge hear and
conclude the matter.
''The Presidency is now hiding under a cunningly manufactured security
report not to reopen the court until Fayose is sworn in. This is an
invitation to chaos. Never in the convoluted political history of
Nigeria has a President openly humiliated the Judiciary as President
Jonathan is doing presently. Having destroyed every national
institution, the President has now moved to destroy the Judiciary which
is the last hope of the common man.
''But we want to sound a note of caution: Once the Judiciary of a nation
is destroyed, then there is nothing left. This is the highest form of
impunity. It is a gross violation of the constitution and an attack on
the principle of separation of powers when the executive arm is
preventing the Judicial arm from operating.
''For how long will the courts remain closed. What is the responsibility
of the police, the army and the SSS if they cannot protect lives and
property. It is wrong for one man to hold the whole state to random,
simply because he boasts of the capacity to set the state on fire,'' it
said.
APC said President Jonathan is simply destroying the judiciary by
protecting a man who leads thugs to beat up a judge, adding: ''When a
President encourages the desecration of the Judiciary, that President is
destroying the very foundation and pillar of not just democracy but of
the entire society.''
The party called on the international community to prevail on President
Jonathan to stop this assault on democracy, peace, stability, law and
order
''Mr. President, you cannot in one breath claim that you believe in the
rule of law and at the same time be humiliating Judges not only by
protecting those who are beating them up but even more destructively
preventing them from discharging their constitutional duties. Mr
President, no one will invest in a country where there is no strong,
independent judiciary, not to talk of one in which the President
encourages his party men to beat up Judges,'' it said
#APC #Ekiti #Fayose #NJC
Credit: nigerianbulletin
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