The Court of Appeal has described as “fake” news that a member of the five-member panel handling petitions seeking to nullify the election of President Bola Tinubu, has resigned.
The social media has been awash with posts, claiming that Justice Boloukuoromo Ugo had resigned, citing demands to kneecap democracy by siding with President Tinubu in the tribunal’s decision.
The post had earlier claimed, “In a shocking and unprecedented move, Nigerian Justice Boloukuoromo M. Ugo has resigned from the bench, citing demands from the executive branch that he believes would destroy the country’s democracy.
“In a statement, Justice Ugo said that siding with the government on this matter would be the ‘death of Nigeria’s democracy’, and that he could not in good conscience remain silent. His resignation has sent shockwaves through the country, and raised serious questions about the state of Nigeria’s democratic institutions. According to Justice Ugo’s statement, he was asked to ‘cripple the independence of the judiciary’ by ruling in favor of a certain political candidate, whom he did not name but is widely believed to be Bola Tinubu.
However, Bukola Gaar, head of media and personal assistant to the President, Court of Appeal on Thursday dismissed the reports and described the resignation as fake.
Though the justice has not debunked or confirmed the statement credited to him, the appeal court official said the report was not true and should be disregarded.
Also, another senior official of the court described the information as “fake news”, insisting that it was the handiwork of “evil rumour mongers.”
The source, who pleaded not to be mentioned because he was not authorised to speak to the press, maintained that “no such thing happened.”
