The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called for the dismissal of the Personal Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on New Media, Mr. Bashir Ahmad, for making derogatory and contemptuous comments towards the Federal High Court and for claiming to have the power to influence decisions of courts as he deems fit.

HURIWA said it is hopeful that by now as the President celebrates the end of the holy Ramadan in a beautiful relaxation of the Presidential Mansion in Abuja, he would have read that his Special Assistant on New Media had promised a Twitter user to intervene in upturning the conviction by a Nigerian court.

The rights asked: “Is Mr. President also aware that these tweets by his employee was made about the time that the Federal High Court in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, had sentenced Yunusa Dahiru (Yellow) to 26 years imprisonment for child trafficking and sexual exploitation of Ese Oruru?

“We hope Mr. President remembers the story that the teenager, Miss Oruru, was reportedly abducted by Dahiru in Bayelsa in 2015 as a 13-year-old before being taken to Kano State where she was allegedly forcefully married and impregnated by Dahiru. Mr. President must have learnt that a Twitter user, Hammad Yusuf Saleh, had asked Ahmed to intervene in upturning the conviction by the court which he says was manipulated.”

HURIWA recalled that the said Special Assistant Bashir Ahmed when he sensed how angry other tweeter users had become about his claims to have the contact to influence the decision of the court of law then wiped off his earlier tweet and re-tweeted that he was unaware of the ingredients of the said matter of abduction of the teenage Miss Oruru by Yinusa, the Keke rider.

HURIWA in a media statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, said the implication of the assertion of the Presidential aide is that the current Executive arm of government has the capacity to arm-twist the judiciary and can as well write court decisions for the judges from the offices at the Presidential villa.

"We consider this subtle admission of the near-infinite capacity of the Presidential aide to predetermine the decision of the competent courts of law as a grave threat to constitutional democracy and has rubbished the sanctity of the nation's court system except and unless the President comes out clean and state the official position on this verbal assault on the judicial arm of government by one of his assistants in the person of Bashir Ahmed.

“President Buhari should immediately sanction his misbehaved Assistant by sacking him from his job and to assure Nigerians that indeed his administration is not tele-guiding the judges of the court systems at the federal level. If this is not done then Nigerians will have no choice but to accept what Bashir Ahmed told us that as an official of President Buhari that he has the contact that can extra-judicially fix the decisions of courts of Nigeria which is a grave violation of the principle of separation of powers recognized by the Constitution and specifically in section 6.”

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