14th October, 2015
Senator Aisha Jummai Alhassan, one of the ministerial nominees told Senators when she was being screened on Wednesday that her nomination by President Muhammadu Buhari as a minister was a ploy to get her to withdraw her petition against the result of Taraba 2015 governorship election.
Senator Alhassan told the Senators that she will continue to pursue her petition at the Tribunal in spite of her nomination as a minister.
Alhassan contested the 2015 governorship election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) against Ishaku Dahiru of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“My nomination by President Muhammadu Buhari has nothing to do with my ongoing election petition.
“President Buhari will not prevent me from going ahead with the case,” she said.
The nominee who was a former registrar of Federal Capital Territory, FCT High Court, was quizzed on issues in judiciary by the Senators before she was asked to go.
She was asked questions on corruption in the judiciary and the nominee said corruption takes various forms.
“When a judge exercises his discretional powers injudiciously, it is corruption.
“When a lawyer tells his client to plead not guilty even when he knows the client is guilty, it is corruption.”
Alhassan added that orruption is perpetrated by judges and lawyers in many ways.
“Lawyers ingratiate with judges and make friends with them. They then lobby to have their cases assigned to such judges.
“We all know that judges are also human beings capable of being influenced by their friendship with their lawyer friends,” said the nominee.