CJN not COVID-19 positive, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court said on Tuesday said that Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad, is not COVID-19 positive.

Akande Festus, Director of Press and Information, Supreme Court of Nigeria, in a press statement, stated that there was no iota of truth in the report that the CJN has caught the COVID-19 which made the rounds in the media on Tuesday.

The statement read in part: “It’s necessary to state that there’s no iota of truth in the claim being peddled by the publication, as there hasn’t been any indication made public or otherwise that has shown any anxiety over the CJN’s health.

“This is obviously a product of the imagination of the author of the concocted story which has literally failed the test of sound, investigative journalism as no form of enquiries were made by the Reporter before hitting the public domain with this baggage of falsehoods to mislead the public by crying wolf where none is in sight.

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“The Hon. CJN, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad being unavoidably absent at a function is not enough to plunge into this premeditated conclusion that there’s now “anxiety over his health.” The other aspect of this monumental falsehood is the erroneous claim that the “CJN has not been seen in public for weeks.” We are still at a loss as to where the Reporter got that malicious information from, as the CJN has been very active and even presided over the swearing in of the newly appointed Justices of the Supreme Court a few weeks back.

“It should be noted that no business survives on falsehood. You cannot whip up sentiments through sensational reports to attract traffic to your media organisation. Certainly such practice leads to nowhere. We must eschew acts capable of eroding our good values at all times.

“I wish to state categorically clear that there is no medical report so far made available by anybody indicating that the Hon. CJN has tested positive for Coronavirus. Those peddling the rumour should go a step further to confirm from their sources and equally obtain the copy of whatever laboratory test result they are relying on.

“As of this moment of issuing this statement, no one has so far shown me or any other person in Supreme Court a copy of the test result they are referring to in the report.”