Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned the judiciary not to put Rivers State on fire, by the Wednesday’s judgement of the Abuja Federal High Court order, stopping the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from releasing allocation to River State.
Atiku in a statement by his media adviser Paul Ibe, noted that Rivers State accounts for almost 25 percent of Nigeria’s oil assets, wondered why Justice Joyce Abdulmalik could issue the order when it was public knowledge that Rivers State had already challenged the Court of Appeal’s judgement on the legality of Rivers State’s 2024 budget.
According to him, the judgement was intended to undermine the Supreme Court.
He regretted that Nigeria courts are “playing a more ignoble role in fostering political crises within political parties and even in states, and commended the Chief Justice of Nigeria Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, for summoning judges sitting on the Rivers State cases.
Atiku however, called on the the CJN to ensure that those found wanting were disciplined in order to restore the fading glory of God the judiciary.
“From the emirship tussle in Kano State to the Rivers imbroglio where courts are going as far as preventing elections from holding, taking Nigeria back to the dark days of June 12, 1993, where polls were annulled,” he observed.
The former vice president said Nigeria has descended into the theatre of the absurd since the inception of the Bola Tinubu administration.
“Sadly, under the leadership of those who claim to have fought for Nigeria’s democracy, the country is descending into chaos with conflicting orders from courts of coordinate jurisdiction flying all over the place while judges are being induced in the name of empowerment and provision of houses.
“The result is that Nigerians are gradually losing confidence in an institution which prides itself as the last hope of the common man.
“Foreign investors will avoid any place where judgements can be bought by the highest bidder,” Atiku said and warned that Nigeria should not be allowed to descend to the Hobessian state of nature “where life is short, nasty and brutish, where citizens opt for self-help,” and called on the Nigerian judiciary to restore its image.