Buhari Not Interfering in Our Affairs – Supreme Court
Supreme Court reiterates its independence as an arm of government.
Says insinuation that president Buhari is interfering in its activities are ill-informed and defective.
The authorities the Supreme Court have on Monday reacted to insinuations that President Muhammadu Buhari is dictating to them or interfering in the court’s decision-making process.
The court in a statement released by its spokesperson, Festus Akande, also said a media report, which blamed the fate that befell the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen on some supposed disagreement among some directors of the court faulted such insinuations that members of the court’s bench are currently fictionalised, insisting that justices of the court are as united as ever.
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Describing the story as misleading, the court said that such was ill-informed is obviously calculated to fan the ember of discord and as well whip up premature sentiments.
“The Supreme Court of Nigeria is an organized and well-structured arm of government that is governed by well-defined rules and regulations which all staff are expected to observe and align within their daily operations. The Nigerian state, as it is well known, has three arms of government which evidently makes provision for the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary.
“As it is in practice, these three Arms are mutually independent and largely enjoy separation of powers; thus for anyone to insinuate that the Executive or the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, is the one dictating to the Chief Justice of Nigeria on how to run the affairs of the Supreme Court or the kind of disciplinary measures to mete out as a form of internal discipline of the staff for whatever reason is both false and logically defective,” it said.
The statement further said Former CJN Onnoghen in his capacity as the head of the Nigerian Judiciary and the Supreme Court in particular, as it was then, had no cause to seek external advice or intervention in the discipline of his staff, if such occasion had arisen.
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“Similarly, the alleged six Directors or what the publication referred to as “ASCON 6” have no cause or power whatsoever to plot against Justice Onnoghen as reported in the publication.
“Let it be noted that the President and Commander- in -chief has never interfered or meddled into the internal administration of the Supreme Court, let alone granting audience to the six Directors with a view to plotting Justice Onnoghen’s downfall on the grounds that the former Chief Justice of Nigeria allegedly failed to heed to the President’s advice of sacking them for the alleged “massive underhand dealings”,” the court added.
