Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential contender for 2023, claims that President Bola Tinubu's ultimate loss at the Northern District of Illinois court was caused by the independence of the judiciary in the United States, US.
Atiku was responding to Justice Nancy Maldonado's directive to Chicago State University to provide Atiku access to all of Tinubu's academic records.
He criticised Babatunde Ogala, Tinubu's attorney and the former national legal adviser of the All Progressives Congress, for saying that the US court victory was of no relevance.
Asserting that the ruling would have no bearing on Atiku's Supreme Court case against Tinubu's victory, Ogala had also compared the triumph to masturbation.
Atiku, however, stated that courts in Nigeria had continued to award Tinubu victory based on technicalities rather than render justice based on the case's merits, a practice that had resulted in more than 20 questionable triumphs.
He said that since 1999, when renowned human rights attorney Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) initially revealed his alleged certificate scam, Tinubu had persisted in eluding the law.
Atiku expressed regret that the Nigerian judiciary had fallen short of expectations as the last bastion of the common man in a statement made through his Special Assistant on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu.
“Justice Maldonado who has spent less than one year on the bench and who sat on this case for barely a month, has been able to do what the Nigerian judiciary could not do for 23 years.
"This explains why Nigerian society is on the brink of slipping into the state of nature, which Thomas Hobbes described as short, brutish, and nasty.
“Ordinarily, we would not have responded to the words of a legal Lilliputian who has never won any landmark case in court and whose growth in the legal field is tied to the apron strings of a Chicago Bagman.
"However, the truth needs to be said for the sake of posterity.
“It is unfortunate that Ogala glorifies technicality instead of justice. Ogala claimed that the victory was meaningless.
"So, why did his principal try to block the release of his credentials if he had nothing to hide? Why did he also appeal the initial judgment?
"The Bible says only the wicked run when no one chases them. Why has Tinubu been blocking the release of his academic records for nearly 30 years?”
Ogala's outburst, according to Atiku's assistant, was motivated by his eagerness to be appointed by Tinubu after failing to make the cabinet.
“Ogala was lobbying to be the Attorney-General. He believed it was his birthright after defending Tinubu in court on several occasions.
“However, having only received the title of senior advocate two years ago without any remarkable or landmark cases under his belt, Tinubu opted for the more experienced Lateef Fagbemi.
“Since then, Ogala has been trying to ingratiate himself to Tinubu and is now standing logic on its head just to please his master. How pathetic!”
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