By Kehinde Osasona
Abuja
The Court of Appeal has denounced the reported resignation of a member of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), Justice Justice Boloukuoromo Moses Ugo, describing it as false and misleading.
While dismissing the report via a statement, the Chief Registrar of the Court, Malam Umar Mohammed Bangari, appealed to the general public to ignore the fake news in its entirety.
Bangari spoke with newsmen on Thursday in Abuja in reaction to the widespread news on the purported resignation of the PEPC member.
The news of the purported resignation of Justice Ugo from the Bench, citing demands “to kneecap democracy”, broke earlier today on the internet.
The online report stated that Justice Ugo resigned from the bench, citing demands from the executive branch that he believes would destroy the country’s democracy.
In a statement, as reported by the online platform, Justice Ugo said that siding with the government on the petitions challenging the election of Bola Ahmed Tinubu would be the “death of Nigeria’s democracy” and that he could not in good conscience remain silent.
The Chief Registrar explained that Justice Ugo is still on the panel of Justices of the Court handling the petitions by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Labour Party (LP), and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Bangari while faulting the report said neither his office nor the Information department of the Court was contacted before dishing out what he called a false report.
The Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Peter Gregory Obi, and PDP’ alongside Atiku are challenging the declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.
