Under the Guardians of Democracy banner, a civil society organisation has expressed concern over purported schemes by opposing political parties to coerce the judiciary into handing down rulings in their favour.
The organisation honoured the judges of the Appeal Court for preserving justice, equity, fairness, and democracy in Nigeria on Thursday while organising a nonviolent demonstration in Abuja.
The organisation’s convener, Adams Kabir Matazu, told reporters during the event that the group is celebrating the judiciary’s victory over what they referred to as political parties’ insidious attempts to subvert and corrupt the rule of law.
He emphasised how crucial it is to defend democratic values and encourage an impartial judiciary.
Matazu called attention to the recent events in Plateau State and said that some people were being sponsored by politicians to march against the judiciary in the streets. She described this as a shocking demonstration of disdain for the rule of law and emphasised the need to address such trends.
“We, the Guardians of Democracy, must unite to denounce such behaviour and stand united against any efforts to weaken the judiciary,” he declared.
The main goal of this assurance rally is to express our sincere gratitude to the Appeal Court justices for their courageous resistance against the mischievous activities carried out by political party operatives.
These operatives have openly attempted to coerce the court into rendering decisions that are at odds with the fundamental tenets of our civilisation. We genuinely believe in the concepts of justice, equity, and fairness, and the court has a responsibility to protect these concepts without wavering,” declared Matazu.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was charged by Matazu with trying to undermine the democratic system.
He lambasted the PDP for what he called its hypocrisy, saying that the party has engaged in acts against these ideals while publicly endorsing the judiciary.
“The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has been named as a sponsor and culprit of this evil agenda,” he declared. Knowing that a once-respected party will go to such lengths to commit such sins without considering the consequences for our democratic system is both pitiful and very distressing.It is noteworthy that the PDP, which has been the most outspoken in its criticism of the judiciary, is also the party that has historically supported such criticism.The hypocrisy of the PDP is evident to everybody. Although they say they are in favour of the courts, their deeds speak louder than words.Nonetheless, we are offering our support and solidarity at this time.
But for now, we are offering our hand in support and solidarity to the judges who have been impacted, and we hope that they will realise that political parties are not to blame for the insanity that has been perpetrated against them in an attempt to undermine our democratic system as a whole. The sentence says this.The civic group stressed the need to keep the judiciary from becoming politicised and urged all Nigerians to band together in support of it.