Supreme Court judgement: Senate leader warns against stampeding judiciary into partisan politics

…Celebrates Tinubu’s victory at the Supreme Court

As the Supreme Court Thursday affirmed the election of President Bola Tinubu, the Leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele has warned opposition parties and their candidates against stampeding the judiciary into partisan politics through disinformation, mal-information and misinformation.

Bamidele, who chaired the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters in the ninth National Assembly, kicked against how they allegedly dragged the judiciary into partisan politics “in pursuit of their selfish interests at the expense of the collective interest of Nigeria and Nigerians.”

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This was according to a statement by the Directorate of Media and Public Affairs, Office of the Senate Leader on Thursday in Abuja following the decision of the apex court.

While celebrating the victory of the President at the apex court, Bamidele condemned the “undue blackmailing of the judiciary even before the petitions of the opposition parties and their candidates were decided.”

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He observed that the judiciary was one of the most consistent, dependable and reliable democratic institutions that still stands for the oppressed in the federation, noting that It is therefore, immoral for any political actor or party to subject the judiciary to media trial rather than abiding by the rule of law.

“At the inception, the petitioners claimed to have won the 2023 presidential election during their separate world press conferences, but when they failed to prove their cases, they selfishly resorted to blackmailing the time-tested institutions, especially the judiciary,” he said.

The Senate leader stressed that the decisions of the appellate and apex courts have clearly shown that the last elections were the most credible since the beginning of the Fourth Republic with the deployment of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, which the Independent National Electoral Commission used for the conduct of the elections.

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He, therefore, commended the apex court for standing for the truth and truth alone amid “ferocious, needless and relentless intimidation of judicial officers by the petitioners, who trampled upon the national interest in pursuit of their self-centric political agenda.”

According to the statement, “Judiciary has never been vilified in the recent history of this federation by petitioners who at different times benefitted tremendously from the independence and neutrality of the judiciary.

“Now that Judiciary has concluded all the presidential election petitions in favour of President Tinubu, all political actors, interests and parties henceforth stop playing politics with the rule of law and the integrity of the judiciary.

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“As far as Nigeria is concerned, judiciary remains an unbiased arbiter wholly committed to the dispensation of justice without regard to any ethnic, economic, political, religious consideration.

“It is therefore, unfair and uncalled to paint the judiciary, the only source of hope for the oppressed, black in the eyes of the whole world.

“This does not harm the judiciary alone, but also portray all of us, Nigerians at home and in the diaspora, bad before the eyes of the whole world. This is completely unacceptable! And it must be stopped!”