A’Court  Dismisses Report Of Justice Ugo’s Resignation From Presidential Tribunal

The Court of Appeal has debunked a report which claimed that Justice Boloukuoromo Moses Ugo, a member of the five-man panel of justices in the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, has resigned.

Justice Ugo’s purported resignation went viral on Wednesday evening. An online platform, Igbo Times Magazine, reported that Justice Ugo had issued a statement about his resignation because he was asked to rule in favour of a candidate in the last presidential election which he did not name.

The report claimed that Justice Ugo said that he was asked “to suppress evidence and dismiss cases that could have an impact on the election,” and that doing would so be the “death of Nigeria’s democracy,” insisting that he could not in good conscience remain silent.

However, reacting to the news, Bukola Gaar, head of media, Court of Appeal, said Justice Ugo has not withdrawn his membership of the presidential election petition court.

Gaar, who spoke with BusinessDay on Thursday, described the report as fake and urged the public to disregard it.

The five-man panel that Justice Ugo is a member, is handling petitions seeking to nullify the election of President Bola Tinubu.

Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are challenging the declaration of Tinubu as winner of the February 25 presidential election.

The report of the alleged resignation comes barely 48 hours after Jackson Ude, a Twitter user, reported that  the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, had a telephone conversation with President Tinubu concerning the outcome ov the presidential election petition.

Ude alleged that the CJN informed Tinubu to prepare for a rerun of the election.

However, the CJN through a statement by the Director of Information of the Supreme Court, Dr Festus Akande on Wednesday, said there is no iota of truth in the narrative in the social media.

The CJN said the judiciary has no plans to favour neither the petitioners nor the respondents in the petitions pending before the court.