CPC Man Denies Attack, Jonathan Closes Case At Poll Tribunal

There was confusion at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal on Thursday as the National Publicity Secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, technically denied issuing the controversial press statement, which allegedly cast serious aspersion on the integrity of the Nigerian judiciary.

The court had summoned the CPC’s spokesman, through a subpoena issued last Tuesday, to appear before the court today to ascertain the authenticity or otherwise of a press release credited to him to the effect that, the Nigerian judiciary was descending to the abyss and which formed the basis of a report published by the Nigeria Tribune Newspaper a week ago.

This perceived low rating of the judiciary, which the paper ran under the headline, “Nigerian judiciary descending to the abyss”, necessitated the invitation of Fashakin by the 5-man panel of the court hearing CPC’s petition, to come and offer explanations on both the intent and purpose of the press statement.

At the proceedings, Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Kumas Akaas, asked Fashakin if he was served with subpoena order made on Tuesday 4th October, but he answered in the negative saying, “I was not served with the subpoena but out of the respect I have for the court, I decided to appear here today having been informed by friends”.

When the court drew his attention to the fact that the National Financial Secretary of the CPC, Pastor E. F Longe received the order, he maintained that his attention was not drawn to it. At this point, the court asked that the subpoena be served on him right in court.

However, the court had hardly finished explanation on why he was summoned when the CPC’s spokesman interjected with the following words, “I did not come here to answer charges; I have issued so many press releases and so, I will need to see a number of my press releases to know if this (the controversial release of 28 September) is one of them. I need to have legal representation to be able to answer this properly. I will need time to be able to study it to know whether it came from me.”

Consequently, the court granted him a 7-day grace to enable him authenticate the source of the statement. This came shortly after counsel to both sides had expressed the need to preserve the sanctity of the judiciary as well as the corporate existence of the nation.

Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan closed his defence, having called a total of eighteen witnesses to put a lie to CPC’s claim that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared Jonathan winner of the April 16 Presidential poll in error.

—Nnamdi Felix/Abuja