COPDEM warns Tinubu’s lawyers against suffocating judiciary

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

The Coalition for the Protection of Democracy (COPDEM) on Wednesday warned President Bola Ahmed Tínubu’s legal team at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) to desist from intimidating judiciary, asking the President to disown and dissociate himself from such antidemocratic aberrations.

The warning is coming 48 hours after the PEPT reserved its judgement on a petition filed by the presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, challenging the declaration of presidential candidate of All Progressive Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu as the winner of February 25, election.

Tinubu had asked the presidential election tribunal to dismiss the petition filed by the Labour Party seeking to nullify his victory on the grounds that he did not secure 25 percent of the lawful votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Tinubu, speaking through his lead counsel, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), in a final written address to the tribunal against the petition, said the FCT is the 37th State for electoral purposes and any other interpretation would “lead to absurdity, chaos, anarchy and alteration of the very intention of the legislature”.

However, briefing journalists in Abuja, COPDEM described the submission of Olanipekun at the Tribunal as a threat to the judiciary.

The group’s spokesperson, Danjuma Garba Musa, in his address, alleged that Olanipekun’s submission was capable of intimidating the justices of the Appeal Court, handling the case.

COPDEM said “Since the inception of the incumbent APC led government, inaugurated on the 29th of May 2023, the state of our nation’s democracy is not at its best and far from being commendable.

“The threat to the judiciary and the rule of law is a major concern, in addition to the increasing public outcry over the highhanded removal of subsidy that has plunged more Nigerians into poverty.

“Any threat to the judiciary is a threat to our democracy. COPDEM believes in the rule of law and justice. Justice is the ultimate pillar of any democracy: it must be done and be seen to have been done.

“COPDEM is in support and advocates for the absolute independence and integrity of the judiciary as fundamental to the success of our democracy and for the peace and unity of Nigeria as a nation.

“It is a threat to the judiciary and rule of law for a Senior Advocate of Nigeria to
presume and invoke anarchy in Nigeria if the victory of his client, Bola Ahmed
Tinubu, is judiciously overturned by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal
(PEPT) before the whole world. The requirement of 25% in the FCT is in the
Nigerian Constitution, not a party Constitution.

“Upholding the provisions of the Constitution is a fundamental democratic ideal, while its interpretation and determination for all intents and purposes are the sole mandate of the judiciary.

“Notably, such insinuations are threats to the peace and unity of Nigeria and therefore must be condemned and withdrawn.”

The group therefore called on “all Nigerian patriots, democrats and the legal profession to see this as a threat to the judiciary as an institution and our democracy.”