THE All Progressives Congress today cautioned the New Nigeria People’s Party government in Kano State against bringing Hon. Justice Flora Ngozi Azinge, the head of the National and State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, into disrepute due to its ostensibly poor performance in the tribunal’s defense.
According to the APC, the purposeful attempt by the Kano State administration to discredit the tribunal chairperson by fabricating a false narrative and using out-of-context quotes from her amounted to disrespect for the judge and the judicial system in general.
A statement issued by the immediate past Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs and Spokesperson for Gawuna/Gari Campaign Council, Mallam Muhammad Garba, stated that “when Hon. Justice Azinge made the revelation on the alleged attempt to bribe a member of the tribunal by a senior lawyer, she never named any particular party.”
“The action of the Kano State government is nothing but gimmickry and an attempt to also disparage the APC”, he said.
According to him, in order to denigrate the APC, the NNPP government referred to the APC as the bribe giver.
He said that the Kano State Government was “also preempting the possible unravelling of the actual bribe giver by the tribunal and therefore wanted to malign the judge.”
Garba also said that the allegation by the Kano State Commissioner for Information, Baba Halilu Dantiye, further indicated that the government was trying to vilify the tribunal before the judgement so that it draws sympathy from the unsuspecting public in the event it is defeated.
“To also further confirm how perplexed they are, they filed an appeal while the tribunal is still holding its proceedings, saying however that their action will not stop the election petition tribunal from going on with its sittings until it delivers final judgement.
“Even with an apparent sign of victory on its side, the APC has not and will never offer any bribe to anyone involved in the case considering that it has presented facts and figures to prosecute the matter before the tribunal”, Garba said.
Garba noted that while the APC had presented all of its witnesses throughout the tribunal’s sessions, all of whom had been effectively cross-examined, the NNPP government had not done so.
He said the APC is optimistic it would eventually regain its stolen mandate while reiterating its determination to carefully pursue legal remedy in the case.
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