Ekiti: Stop This Assault On Judiciary, APC Tells Jonathan

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
Alhaji Lai Mohammed
National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC)
Abuja, Oct. 9th 2014