The National Judicial Council (NJC) has denied a social media claim that Justice Boloukuoromo Ugo has withdrawn his membership in the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC).
OsunDailyNG understands that micro-blogging platform, Twitter went wild on Wednesday after a user, Umar Sani, claimed that Ugo resigned from the five-member panel after citing “demands to knee-cap democracy”.
Sani alleged that the judge, in his resignation letter, stated that he was asked to “cripple the independence of the judiciary” by ruling in favour of a certain political candidate believed to be President Bola Tinubu.
However, reacting in a chat with TheCable on Thursday, the spokesman of the NJC, Soji Oye said the claims are false and should be ignored by discerning Nigerians.
Oye stated that the aim of the claims is to distract Nigerians and set the tone for a narrative, in the event that the court’s judgement doesn’t favour the rumour peddlers.
The NJC spokesman added that the presidential election petition court will issue a formal statement to address the issues.
Also reacting to the development, the Secretary of the presidential tribunal, Josephine Ekperobe, said the claims are false and baseless.
Ekperobe said she spent time with the judge on Wednesday and that as of Thursday, she is yet to be informed of the judge’s purported resignation.
