Ex-Supreme Court justice accuses LP of mischief
A former Supreme Court justice Mary Odili has fired a riposte after the Labour Party accused her of making an “unguarded utterance” at a function last Friday.
Odili, at the 25 years anniversary of Joe Gadzama becoming a senior advocate, had eulogised Wole Olanipekun and Lateef Fagbemi as “masters” and “experts.” Olanipekun is the counsel to President Bola Tinubu, while Fagbemi is the attorney-general of the federation. The LP said Odili’s comment had “left our party in shock.”
The opposition party’s former presidential candidate Peter Obi is awaiting the outcome of his suit challenging President Tinubu’s victory.
The party said, “We note also the needless lavish showering of praises on the legal counsels of both APC and Candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu by the retired Justice when the gathering was not theirs.
“We find this extremely undignified of a renowned jurist who rose to the peak of her career in the country’s Apex court and who as the Chairperson of the body of benchers, should be at the forefront of defending the virtuousness of the courts.”
Felix Enebeli, spokesperson to Mary Peter-Odili, on Tuesday said the LP “mischievously” took its principal’s comment out of context.
He also blamed “some conflict entrepreneurs” and “persons determined to force her speech to fit jaundiced narratives and political nuances” for the perceived slant.
Enebeli said Odili acknowledged that the 2023 elections “generated a storm” and “advised all those who were not declared victorious in the elections to toe the line of legality.
He urged the party to follow the rules of law in channeling its grievance, and not “pull down the roof of the nation.”
