The Presidency has said that President Muhammadu Buhari has never used his familiarity with judges to seek favours from them in 2003, 2007 and 2011, when he was challenging the fairness of the presidential election results from the lowest to the highest courts in the land, despite his personal relationship with some of them.
He also advised Nigerians to stop linking President Muhammadu Buhari to the legal travails of some judges arrested in the country recently.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu said President Buhari would be the last person to authorise anybody to induce a judge to pervert the course of justice.
The presidential spokesman also explained that, as a politician, Buhari had never suggested to his lawyers to approach any judge for assistance to win his cases.
He said the President lives by this principle and has never deviated from it.
On the fate of the judges facing corruption allegations, Shehu said the president doesn’t tell courts how to do their job and that anybody accused of corruption is protected by law to defend his or her innocence.
He explained that the purpose of the law is to punish the guilty and acquit the innocent, noting that the law protects the rights of everyone.
He said the president doesn’t have any powers to force any court to convict anybody who is innocent, arguing that in a democratic society, that cannot happen without resistance by the people.