The Presidency has distanced President Muhammadu Buhari from the travails which some judges accused of receiving bribe are going through, appealing to media practitioners to stop linking the President to the legal travails of some recently arrested judges in the country.
A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, said that President Buhari would be the last person to authorize anybody to induce a judge to pervert the course of justice.
Garba Shehu recalled that despite his personal familiarity with some judges, Buhari had never used that familiarity to seek favours from them from 2003, 2007 and 2011 when he was challenging the fairness of the presidential election results, from the lowest to the highest courts in the land during the periods in question.
He said that as a politician, Buhari had never once ever suggested to his lawyers to approach any judge for assistance to win his cases, adding that the President lives by this principle and has never deviated from it.
On the fate of the judges facing corruption allegations, the presidential media aide said Buhari does not tell the courts how to do their jobs and that anybody accused of corruption is protected by the law to defend their innocence.
He said that the purpose of the law is to punish the guilty and acquit the innocent, noting that the law protects the rights everyone.
Shehu said the President doesn’t have any powers to force any court to convict anybody who is innocent, arguing that in a democratic society, that cannot happen without resistance by the people. [myad]
