The immediate past Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to probe a claim that he and some All Progressives Congress (APC) lawyers are drafting the judgment for the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT).
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) is also seeking an investigation of further allegations that he not only supervised the rigging of the 2023 Presidential election in favour of President Bola Tinubu, but that he also wrote the judgment for Judges in the 2019 election tribunal that sealed former President Mohammadu Buhari’s Presidential election victory.
He requested the Police chief “to cause the publications to be investigated with utmost urgency and seriousness” noting that they have implications not only for his person but also for the “independence, impartiality, and integrity” of the judiciary.
He reasoned that the publications could be part of a wider campaign to undermine the judiciary “by those who seek to manipulate the judicial institution for their own gain.”
Fashola made the request in an August 7 letter written on his behalf by his Abuja-based counsel.
The former Lagos State Governor attributed the primary sources of the allegations to social media posts by one Jackson Ude and Reportera.ng.
Fashola had, in a statement on August 7, vehemently denied the allegations describing them as “baseless”, and “defamatory” and condemned the individuals behind them, referring to them as agents of destabilization.
