Two-term Governor of Adamawa State and former Minister of Youth Development, Mr. Boni Haruna, has urged the general public to be wary of a trending story in the social media purporting that the judgment of the Court of Appeal Election Panel that restored his governorship mandate in 2004 which was nullified by the Adamawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal was procured with money exchanging hands through his lawyers to the judges.
The story, which he described as “mendacious”, is said to be credited to WikiLeaks Reports by its purveyors.
In a press statement issued in Abuja over the weekend, former Governor Haruna said that he was “dismayed at the blatant inferences to influence peddling, and bribery in a case which its outcome was hailed to have upheld the truth and nothing but the truth, at the time that judgment was delivered by the Appeal Court Panel, soothing as it were, the already frayed nerves of the voting populace in Adamawa State”.
“Such innuendo and horrifying slander against my person and character, and against the person of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and the eminent Justices of the Appeal Panel, many of whom later made it to the apex court, the Supreme Court of Nigeria”, he maintained, “were both libelous and defamatory”.
He added: “It is appalling that the purveyors of this fallacious story in the WikiLeaks Report alleging bribery to the judges of the Court of Appeal chose to rely on the report as if it were a divine holy book whose contents are sacrosanct to conclude the state of the judiciary, the character of the judges and the alleged role of Afe Babalola Chambers and not the merit of the judgment of the Appeal Court panel.
“It will appear that the purveyors of this story care less if they engage in destroying others through sensationalism, lies, and fabrications.
“Many of those peddling this story have never read the judgments of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and that of the Court of Appeal Panel.
“No judge who sat on the said appeal at the Court of Appeal, Jos, needed to be bribed to arrive at the painstaking judgment that was given as a careful reading of both judgments would easily reveal.
“Even in their much-touted WikiLeaks report, it stated that ‘the verdict of the Appeal Court and the Election Tribunal differed significantly on their findings on the relevant facts that they beg the question of whether one verdict or the other may have been ‘influenced’ by outside parties’.
“But the people who are drawn to sensationalism, no matter how comic their story may be, would rather narrow it down to the judgment of the Court of Appeal Panel as the compromised judgment to satisfy the whims of those who they work for, relying on a purported story from an anonymous attorney from Afe Babalola’s Chamber to do their hatchet job.
“Again, the so-called WikiLeaks report also provided an answer to why there were such significant differences in the judicial decisions of the Election Tribunal and that of the Appeal Panel when it quoted parts of the Appeal Panel’s ruling thus, ‘the Appeal Court in Jos, however, found that the evidence used by the Election Tribunal was inadequate even to prove the simplest of a criminal offense, very impotent to affect the appellants/ cross respondents with the commission of an electoral offense and that the evidence was scandalous and naive as a basis for nullifying the election’.
“If any further testimony is needed by the purveyors of this story and those who may be hoodwinked by their false narratives and misleading conspiracy theories, to be able to believe in the erudition, authenticity, and self-evident truth in the judgment of the Appeal Panel, such further proof is adduced by the Distinguished Jurist, Honourable Justice James Ogebe, JSC (Rtd) in his autobiography titled JUSTICE UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE ALMIGHTY published in 2020.
“At page 57, paragraph 2 of that book, he wrote inter alia, “Despite the shortage of Justices, three of us from the division were taken to Jos to hear Boni Haruna’s case from the Adamawa Governorship Tribunal. Boni Haruna was elected Governor of Adamawa State: however, his election was nullified by the election tribunal.
“A panel of five Justices comprising Victor Omage, Pius Aderemi, Musa Muhammad, Francis Ogbuagu, and I heard the appeal and restored Governor Boni Haruna.
“We found the Tribunal judgment bizarre. Evidence rejected in the proceedings ended up being used by the tribunal in its judgment.
“Remarkably, Honourable Justice James Ogebe JSC (Rtd) in a press statement has not only denied the allegations of bribery as alleged in the WikiLeaks reports, but has offered himself for investigation on the allegations that his Honourable self and his colleagues, Justices of the Appeal Court, three of whom are now late, were bribed by the Afe Babalola chambers to give the judgment that nullified earlier verdict of the Adamawa State Governorship Election Tribunal”.
Haruna therefore, urged all discerning minds “to read the judgments, already in public domain, to draw their conclusions, rather than believe such mendacious stories being peddled in the WikiLeaks reports”.
