A claim that Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), was questioned by the Department of State Service (DSS) about allegedly pro-Wike political utterances has been rejected by the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The supreme court refuted calls that the CJN should resign for the same matter, according to five Justices of the Court.
The Supreme Court issued a warning to individuals spreading the rumours to stop in their interests in a statement from the Director of Information and Press of the Court, Dr. Festus Akande.
The Supreme Court’s answer was prompted by an allegation in an online publication that Justice Ariwoola had been interrogated by DSS regarding his purported political utterances in Port Harcourt at a public event.
In part, the statement said, “We have read with shock and dismay a publication with the above caption by an online media outlet, “People’s Gazette,” alleging that the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Olukayode Ariwoola was questioned by the DSS for the comments he made in “Port Harcourt at a state banquet” and that “five Justices of Supreme Court are calling for his resignation.”
We wish to state in very clear and unmistakable terms that this is yet another round of the avalanche of lies that have been disingenuously packaged by people with an unenviable pedigree to malign the character and personality of not just the CJN but several other political figures.
The statement claims that it has become abundantly clear that individuals with nefarious intentions have established strategies to launch a variety of coordinated attacks against judicial officers, beginning with the CJN, with the ultimate goal of coercing, blackmailing, and mocking them into silence.
The statement went on to say that the book is filled with fabrications, unreliable material, and unsupported assertions and that this makes it evident that the writers’ motives were not pure.
Additionally, it was made clear that not a single Supreme Court justice had requested the CJN’s resignation and that none of them was currently composing a letter of complaint.
“Neither the Chief Justice of the Nation nor the Honorable Justices of the Supreme Court or other Courts, for that matter, are politicians; thus, none of them should be drawn into politics in any way at all.
Our counsel to this group of rabble-rousers, whose speciality is character assassination through the spread of untrue information to sow discord and discontent, is to reconsider and get involved in worthwhile productive activities that would advance the country. For the wise, one word is sufficient, it was said.
