Appeal Court debunks Charly Boy, other Obidients claiming Justice Ugo has resigned

A viral tweet circulating since Wednesday, claiming a member of the Election Petition panel, Justice Boloukuoromo Ugo resigned in protest, has been debunked by the Court of Appeal.

Justice Ugo is one of the five-member panel that is handling petitions seeking to nullify the election of President Bola Tinubu.

A tweet claiming the Justice of the Appeal Court threw in the towel in protest by some elements to ‘kneecap the judiciary,’ was retweeted by Charly Boy on his Twitter handle @AreaFada1.

At the time of writing, the post has a reach of more than 176,000 and nearly 1,400 retweets.

The tweet reads: “Justice Ugo Resigns, Citing Demands to ‘Kneecap’ Democracy, Says ‘Siding with Tinubu’ Would Mean ‘The Death of Nigeria’s Democracy. Tribunal/Supreme court judges, better be carefulooooo. Aswear with everything I hold precious. If una do anyhow, una go see anyhow.”

But the claim has been described as fake by a source in the Appeal Court, as per reporting by Vanguard Newspaper.

 

He said: “I was with some members of the panel yesterday and I can authoritatively tell you that there was nothing like that.

“In fact, we were shocked when our attention was drawn to the fake news. The true position is that parties in the petitions were given time to file and exchange their final written address. They are already doing that.

“Once the process is completed, the panel will communicate a date for the parties to appear in court to adopt their processes after which the petitions will be fixed for judgement.

“So, it is absurd for someone to sit in a corner of his room and concoct lies from the figment of his or her imagination.

“In fact, our attention was equally drawn to another fake news that a former Governor of Rivers State held a meeting with members of the court, outside the country.

“These are very laughable. How can the honourable justices on the panel travel abroad when they have enormous work pending on their desks?

“Please ignore the fake news. It is very unfortunate. Hopefully, before the end of the day, the Appeal Court will issue a formal statement on the matter.

“I believe that unless someone is made a scapegoat, this fake news trend will continue,” the source added.