Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, has confirmed the strange visits to his office at the Supreme Court Complex in Abuja by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State twice this month.
The CJN said he was not around to receive or have an audience with the governor on both occasions because the governor acted on his own and did not notify him of his intention to visit him.
“A senior official in the CJN chamber intercepted Governor Wike and advised that it is a policy of the CJN not to entertain visits of politicians, especially those with cases in the courts."
He spoke through his media aide, Ahuraka Isah. PUNCH had reported on Monday that one of the governor’s visits coincided with the day the Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, sitting in Abuja, conducted hearing into an application filed by Wike to challenge an order permitting his opponent to inspect the electoral materials used for the poll that brought him to office.
The election of the former education minister, who ran for the governorship on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, is being challenged by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Dr. Dakuku Peterside.
Reacting, Isah, in a statement, confirmed that the CJN never had prior appointments with the governor.
He explained that on the first visit by the governor, the CJN was away in Saudi Arabia observing the Lesser Hajj while during Wike’s second visit, he was also at a meeting of the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee, where candidates shortlisted for the rank of the SAN, were being interviewed.
In his reaction, the Publicity Secretary of the APC in Rivers State, Chief Chris Finebone, described the visit to the CJN as curious.
He had said, “Wike believes that every human being has a price. His problem is just to identify the price. His case is pending and he refused to go with the media during the visits. We want to believe that the visits didn’t happen and if it happened, he must tell Nigerians why he chose to embark on the visit without the media.”
The election of the former education minister, who ran for the governorship on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, is being challenged by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Dr. Dakuku Peterside.
Reacting, Isah, in a statement, confirmed that the CJN never had prior appointments with the governor.
He explained that on the first visit by the governor, the CJN was away in Saudi Arabia observing the Lesser Hajj while during Wike’s second visit, he was also at a meeting of the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee, where candidates shortlisted for the rank of the SAN, were being interviewed.
In his reaction, the Publicity Secretary of the APC in Rivers State, Chief Chris Finebone, described the visit to the CJN as curious.
He had said, “Wike believes that every human being has a price. His problem is just to identify the price. His case is pending and he refused to go with the media during the visits. We want to believe that the visits didn’t happen and if it happened, he must tell Nigerians why he chose to embark on the visit without the media.”
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