I've no hand in judges' travails - Buhari

Amid accusation that the Presidency was behind the recent arrest of two Supreme Court Justices and five Judges of the Federal High Court, President Muhammadu Buhari, has said that he has no hand in their ordeals.

The President particular­ly asked the media and other Nigerians to stop linking him with the travails of the Judg­es whose houses were recent­ly invaded by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) over allegations of cor­ruption and abuse of office.

Some of the arrested judg­es had accused two of Buhari’s ministers of trying to influence them to give judgments favour­able to the current administra­tion by dropping the President’s name.

But in a statement issued last night by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, the President said he would be the last person to authorise anybody to induce a judge to pervert the course of justice.

Shehu declared that despite his personal familiarity with some court judges, Buhari had never exploited that to seek fa­vours from them through 2003, 2007 and 2011 when he ap­proached the courts to reverse his losses in those presidential elections.

He said: “As a politician, Buhari had never once ever suggested to his lawyers to ap­proach any judge for assistance to win his cases. The President lives by this principle and has never deviated from it.

“The President doesn’t tell courts how to do their jobs and that anybody accused of cor­ruption is protected by law to defend his/her innocence”, the statement stressed.

Shehu pointed out that the purpose of the law is to punish the guilty and acquit the inno­cent, and that the law projects the rights everyone.

He added that the Presi­dent doesn’t have any powers to force any court to convict any­body who is innocent, noting that Nigerians would resist such a move in a democratic society.