The Peoples Gazette requested information from the spokespersons for the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the Supreme Court of Nigeria about the whereabouts of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mr. Olukayode Ariwoola, two days before the newspaper published its exclusive on the CJN’s London trip to meet with the ‘President–elect’, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
This was made known by Samuel Ogundipe, the publisher of the online news medium, on Sunday during an interview with 90MinutesAfrica host Rudolf Okonkwo.
“We were tipped off by a source in the Supreme Court that the CJN is in London to meet with Bola Tinubu,” Mr. Ogundipe said.
According to him, the newspaper reached out to the spokespersons for the Supreme Court and the NJC. While the latter said they were not in a position to comment on the request, the spokesman for the former, Festus Akande, declined to respond for two days.
“So we decided to go to press in order to preempt the planned meeting between the CJN and the President-elect because we had no guarantee we would be able to know when or where the meeting would hold specifically or what they would be discussing.
“The CJN ran back to Nigeria after finding out that the information about the meeting had been leaked,” the Peoples Gazette publisher disclosed.
Justice Ariwoola recently expressed disturbing political views when he supported the G-5 governors, some of whom worked for Bola Tinubu in the February 25 presidential election. Though the Supreme Court denied that Mr. Ariwoola ever expressed support for the G-5, a video from the event promptly exposed the lies in the Supreme Court’s statement.
This faux pas has further strained the credibility of the apex court, and Nigerians have begun to question their capacity to dispense justice dispassionately.
Mr. Samuel Ogundipe charged the Supreme Court to come out clean on the true intent of Justice Kayode Ariwoola’s trip to London rather than sponsoring media propaganda to confuse the public.
“If the CJN went on a medical trip as they claim, which hospital did he visit, or did the doctors see him in a hotel? These are clarifications that they should make to Nigerians,” the publisher said.
