Court of Appeal dismisses story saying Justice Ugo resigned from election petition panel

NIGERIA's Court of Appeal has dismissed as false and misleading a recent report that Justice Boloukuoromo Moses Ugo resigned as a member of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) after being pressured to rule in favour of a certain candidate.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Justice Ugo resigned from the bench, citing demands that he help to kneecap democracy. According to an online report, Justice Ugo said siding with the government on the petitions challenging the election of a candidate believed to be President Bola Tinubu would be the death of Nigeria’s democracy and that he could not in good conscience remain silent.

However, Mallam Umar Mohammed Bangari, the chief registrar of the court, dismissed the report, asking the general public to ignore the fake news in its entirety. He explained that Justice Ugo is still on the panel of Justices of the court handling the petitions by the Allied Peoples Movement, Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Mallam Bangari said neither his office nor the information department of the court was contacted, before what he described as a false report was made public. Peter Obi, the Labour Party's presidential candidate and former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP are challenging the declaration of President Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.

This online report claimed Justice Ugo said siding with the government on the petitions challenging the election of President Tinubu would be the death of Nigeria’s democracy and that he could not in good conscience remain silent. Apparently, the purported report said Justice Ugo was asked to cripple the independence of the judiciary by ruling in favour of a certain political candidate.

Although the report did not name the candidate, it is widely believed to be President Tinubu. It claimed that Justice Ugo was alleged to have been asked to suppress evidence and dismiss cases that could have an impact on the election petition.