The State Security Service, SSS, has denied a report that its operatives arrested one of the tribunal judges that ruled on the Kano State gubernatorial election.
Recall that the Chief Press Secretary of the Kano State governor, Sanusi Bature, in an interview with the Channels Television, had alleged that judges of the Kano State Gubernatorial Election Petition Tribunal were intimidated and arrested by security agencies.
Mr Bature had said that, “there is no reason why the DSS can arrest a judge without any suspicion. The DSS arrested one of the judges that delivered the judgement in Kano and I believe that is intimidation.”
“Even this virtual judgement they delivered, we do not know where they delivered it from. Probably, they delivered the judgement under duress or whatever, I am not sure.
“We do not know the location from which they delivered the judgement and we do not know their condition because we could only see them on the screen.
But while speaking to PRNigeria on telephone, the SSS spokesperson, Dr. Peter Afunanya, denied the claim by the Kano governor’s spokesperson.
Mr Afunanya said: “This is a very ridiculous statement. Arresting judges for what reason? It is not true, please.”
Meanwhile, the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, has since rejected the tribunal judgement, describing it as “most unfair”.
The acting deputy national chairman of the party, Nwaeze Onu, during a news conference on Thursday in Abuja, added that the judgment was capable of eroding confidence in the judiciary.
According to him, it would be a hard nut to crack for the tribunal to convince non-partisan Nigerians that the NNPP won all other elections in Kano State, but that of the governorship race.
“For emphasis, NNPP’s presidential candidate, Sen. Musa Kwankwaso, defeated the candidate of the APC, Sen. Bola Tinubu in Kano State with a wide margin.
“In the same vein, NNPP won two senatorial seats as against APC’s one seat. NNPP won 18 House of Representatives seats as against APC’s four.
“At the House of Assembly elections, NNPP won a clear majority of seats as against APC’s meagre number of seats.
“And yet the tribunal believes it was over-voting that gave NNPP majority votes in the governorship election,’’ he observed.
Mr Onu expressed the belief that the NNPP would get back its mandate freely given by the people Kano State within the ambit of the law and the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.
