The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Kano State has warned the state government against blackmailing the chairman of the National and State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, Flora Ngozi Azinge.
Recall that Mrs Azinge had alleged that a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, was offering her a bribe in order to skew the judgment of the tribunal.
The state government, in its reaction, alleged that some strong forces in the APC were the brains behind the bribe offer.
But the Chief of Staff to the APC national chairman, Muhammad Garba, in a statement on Thursday, accused the NNPP government of dragging to disrepute the tribunal chairman.
Mr Garba accused the state government of disrespecting the judicial arm and quoting the judge out of context.
According to him, Mrs Azinge made the revelation on the alleged bribery but never named any particular party.
Mr Garba said: “The Kano state government is also preempting the possible unreveling of the actual bribe giver by the tribunal and therefore wanted to malign the judge.”
While faulting the statement issued by Commissioner of Information, Mr Garba alleged that the state government was trying to vilify the tribunal before the judgement.
The former commissioner added that, “even with an apparent sign of victory on its side, the APC has not and will never offer any bribe to anyone involved in the case considering that it has presented facts and figures to prosecute the matter before the tribunal”.
While reaffirming it’s commitment to continue seeking legal redress in the case, the APC expressed confidence that it would reclaim it’s “stolen mandate”.
