Ignore Mischief Makers, CJN Is Non-Partisan - Ahmed Raji

By Dansu Peter 

 

A prominent Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Barrister Ahmed Raji, has called on the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, to ignore mischief-makers over his comments in Rivers state, where he commended Oyo state governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde for being among the G-5 governors.

The senior advocate said the CJN is not bias in any way with his comments.

Raji, the National President of the Oke-Ogun Development Consultative Forum (ODCF), the umbrella body of indigenes of Oke-Ogun area of Oyo state, while reacting to the report in the media, said the CJN remained non-partisan in his actions and utterances.

He said, "reports attributed to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kayode Ariwoola where he was said to have expressed happiness that the Oyo State governor is among the coalition of five governors of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), recently christened ‘Integrity Group’ is the work of mischief-makers."

Justice Ariwoola was in Rivers State to attend the inauguration of some judiciary projects embarked upon by the incumbent governor of the State, Nyesom Wike and made a joke about the governor of his own State, Engr. Seyi Makinde, being a good friend to the host governor because he married from the state.

Raji who said he also attended the event and did not hear the CJN discuss partisan politics but only joked about the closeness that existed between the two governors, called on the media to scrutinize their information and follow the tenets of journalism to avoid feeding the general public with wrong news which might affect the integrity of the individual involved.

“I was at the said occasion at Port-Harcourt and there was never a time the Chief Justice of the Federation said anything about being in support of the group of PDP five governors, he only made jokes about how the closeness between the Oyo State governor and governor Wike is strong which he attributed to the fact that governor Wike is the in-law of Seyi Makinde.

“For anybody to think the Chief Justice of the Federation will come down to such level as discussing party issues is ridiculous, i enjoin media organizations to please scrutinize information their reporters bring to them to avoid creating crisis and smear the images of people.”

Governor Nyesom Wike and four other PDP governors have resolved not to support the ambition of the party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, due to their claim that the latter did not follow what they called equity in the party’s leadership position.

The five governors which include Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State have been at loggerheads with Atiku in their quest to have a Southern candidate as the party’s Chairman instead of the incumbent Iyorchia Ayu.