The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to dismiss his Assistant on New Media, Bashir Ahmad for making derogatory and contemptuous comments at the Federal High Court.

Bashir had promised to influence decisions of the Court following the sentencing of the abductor of Eseoghene Rita Oruru, to 26 years in prison.

A Nigerian, who claimed the case was manipulated, had called on Bashir on Twitter to help upturn the judgment.

He wrote, “Please Bashir do something about Yunusa Yellow for Allah’s sake, he is wrongly accused and sentenced, the whole matter is manipulated, we need to appeal for him.”

Bashir, who responded in Hausa language said “My brother, I do not have the power to do anything against the judgment of the court, but I will try to contact those whom I think are capable.”

Reacting, HURIWA in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said it was hopeful that after the Holy Ramadan, President Buhari would have read that Bashir Ahmed had promised a Twitter user to intervene in upturning the conviction of a Nigerian court.

HURIWA stated that when Bashir Ahmad sensed how angry other twitter users had become about his claims to have the contact to influence the decision of the Court of law he deleted the 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.

The rights group said the assertion of the Presidential aide implied 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 their 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 Muhammadu Buhari-led administration comes out clean and states the official position on this verbal assault on the Judicial arm of government by one of his assistants in the person of Bashir Ahmad”.

”President Muhammadu Buhari should immediately sanction his misbehaved Assistant by sacking him from his job 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 Ahmad told us that as an official of President Muhammadu Buhari that he has the contact that can extrajudicially fix the decisions of Courts of Nigeria which is a grave violation of the principle of separation of powers recognised by the Constitution, specifically in section 6 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 (as amended).

“Specifically, Section 6 provides thus: “(1) The judicial powers of the Federation shall be vested in the courts to which this section relates, being courts established for the Federation. (2) The judicial powers of a State shall be vested in the courts to which this section relates, being courts established, subject as provided by this Constitution, for a State. (3) The courts to which this section relates, established by this Constitution for the Federation and for the States, specified in subsection (a) to (1) of this section, shall be the only superior courts of record in Nigeria; and save as otherwise prescribed by the National Assembly or by the House of Assembly of a State, each court shall have all the powers of a superior court of record.”