The immediate past Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola, has vehemently rebutted claims that he was involved in drafting the judgment for the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) Judges, describing the claim as baseless and defamatory.
A few days ago, a Twitter user, Jackson Ude, made a post alleging that the former Lagos State Governor who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), was working with lawyers of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to draft the judgement PEPT in the ongoing election petition challenging President Bola Tinubu’s victory.
Fashola was also alleged to have written the judgement for Judges in the 2019 election Tribunal that sealed victory for President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Fashola, according to informants, is working day and night to conclude his proposed judgement and hand over to the PEPT Judges.
“The Judges aside monetary compensations, have been promised elevation to the Supreme Court should they accept Fashola’s version,” Ude alleged.
In a statement released by his Special Adviser on Media, Hakeem Bello, Fashola urged members of the public to disregard the allegations, stating he had been away from Abuja for an extended period of time.
“Fashola expressed his disappointment with the spread of this false information on social media platforms and has called on security agencies to take action against those responsible for spreading fake news,” the statement read in part.
The former Minister believes that these allegations may be “part of a wider campaign to undermine the judiciary by those who seek to manipulate the institution for their own gain”.
Fashola vowed to initiate the process of filing formal petitions against the offensive tweets and online reports with the management of the microblogging site, X (formerly known as Twitter), and the National Communications Commission (NCC).
Additionally, there have been reports of heavy security presence at the former Minister’s Abuja residence.