Atiku vs Buhari: PDP, Atiku target CJN Tanko after tribunal ruling

While the presidential election petition tribunal has yet to rule on the case the PDP and ts candidate Atiku Abubakar brought against President Muhammadu Buhari and his party APC, there are speculations the opposition may appeal to the Supreme Court.

According to the Buhari Media Organisation, Atiku and his party have hatched a plot to smear the character of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Mohammed, ahead of the September 13 judgement of the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.

The group said that was the outcome of a recent strategy meeting the PDP leaders and Atiku had in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The BMO, through its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju, and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, stated in a press release Friday that it had credible information that Abubakar and the PDP were already having the huch they might lose, and were already readying tactics for an appeal at the Supreme Court.

The group said one of their strategies for a favourable outcome at the Supreme Court is to force the CJN to recuse himself from the Supreme Court panel to hear the appeal.

Many believe CJ Tanko is loyal to the president.

“It is a pre-emptive move by a group of unpatriotic politicians which we want Nigerians to be aware of, before they bombard the public space with the type of spurious claims that made the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa stand down from the five-member panel that considered Atiku Abubakar’s petition against President Muhammadu Buhari’s overwhelming victory at the polls,’ said the BMO.

“Nigerians saw how these characters did not care about the sterling qualities of one of the country’s best judges as they maligned her for weeks on end in social and traditional media. They also saw through the crocodile tears of the former Vice President after Justice Bulkachuwa opted to recuse herself, even after the Tribunal dismissed PDP’s petition against her.

“Now, Atiku’s attention is on how to get Chief Justice Mohammed out of the way by again using the media to whip up unnecessary public sentiment, in line with his well-documented desperation to rule the country.’

The BMO agreed Atiku has his constitutional right to proceed to the Supreme Court.  But the group said it is opposed to a situation where a former vice president would be part of a scheme to tarnish the image and reputation of the head of our nation’s judiciary.

“For a man that once claimed to be interested in ‘institutional reforms that would enhance national development’, we consider it absurd that he is at the forefront of efforts to rubbish national institutions and their heads.”