Tribunal: Court dismisses Justice Ugo’s reported resignation

The Court of Appeal on Thursday reacted to the widespread news on the purported resignation of a member of the Presidential Election Petition Court, Justice Boloukuoromo Ugo.

The court has refuted the news, describing it as false and misleading.

While dismissing the report, the Chief Registrar of the Court, Umar Bangari appealed to the general public to ignore the fake news.

Bangari spoke to journalists via a telephone conversation in Abuja.

The news of the purported resignation of Justice Ugo from the Bench, citing demands “to kneecap democracy,” broke earlier on Thursday, on the internet.

The online report stated that Justice Ugo resigned from the bench, citing demands from the executive arm that he believes would destroy the country’s democracy.

In a statement, as reported by the online platform, Justice Ugo said that siding with the government on the petitions challenging the election of Bola Ahmed Tinubu would be the “death of Nigeria’s democracy” and that he could not in good conscience remain silent.

According to Justice Ugo’s purported statement, he was asked to “cripple the independence of the judiciary” by ruling in favour of a certain political candidate.

In addition, he was asked to suppress evidence and dismiss cases that could have an impact on the election.

But the Chief Registrar explained that Justice Ugo is still on the panel of Justices of the Court handling the petitions.

He also faulted the report saying that neither his office nor the information department of the Court was contacted before the said report went out.