GOVERNMENT URGED TO ACT ON ASSAULT OF EKITI JUDICIARY

                                         

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has charged President Goodluck Jonathan to stop his administration's alleged assault on the judiciary by ordering the immediate withdrawal of the security agents deployed to block the resumption of the courts in Ekiti.

Reports says that the opposition party tasked government to do so in line with orders by the National Judicial Commission (NJC), chaired by the Chief Justice of Nigeria.
In a statement, APC issued in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, said the act of deploying security agents to prevent the courts from re-opening as directed by the NJC amounted to undermining the Judiciary and the Constitution.
“The Chief Justice of Nigeria, who is the head of the Judiciary, ordered that courts in Ekiti must re-open and that security personnel should do their jobs by providing security. Instead, the security agents were willfully deployed to prevent the courts from opening. This violation flies in the face of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This undemocratic encroachment and erosion portend great danger for our nation and constitute a threat to our democracy,” APC stated.

 “The Presidency is not constitutionally in any role able to second guess, override or reverse the Judiciary. Our constitutional democracy recognizes separation of powers, and the constitution clearly identifies the scope of each organ’s powers and the head of each branch. This administration’s conduct in frustrating an order of the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the NJC is a new low in lawlessness and illegality. The Presidency is implicitly conveying the message that it is unnecessary to obey the Judiciary. The only result of such conduct is anarchy and chaos.”
The party alleged the People’s Democratic Party-led administration was holding litigants to ransom, preventing and perverting the course of justice and restricting access to the common man’s last hope.
“This action is tantamount to arresting a judgment, something the bar and bench consider with the utmost vile,” the opposition party warned.
The party called on the international community to prevail on President Jonathan, whose office could not be reached, to stop this assault on democracy, peace, stability, law and order.