CJN Ariwoola Appears In Abuja Mosque Amid Controversial UK Meeting With Tinubu

Amid speculations of sneaking out of the country to attend a clandestine meeting with President-elect Bola Tinubu in the United Kingdom, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, was spotted observing Juma’at prayers at the Ansar-Ud-Deen Central Mosque in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja on Friday afternoon.

Also, a video of the CJN earlier leaving the Supreme Court complex and heading to the mosque surfaced on the social media.

It would be recalled that a series of controversies erupted after media reports on Thursday suggested that the CJN had secretly left the country for the United Kingdom to meet with the president-elect to discuss the presidential election cases before the Election Petition Tribunal.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), two major opposition parties, have filed separate petitions challenging the results of the February 25 presidential election won by Tinubu.

But, reacting to the report on the UK meeting, the All Progressives Congress(APC) presidential campaign council denied the report of any clandestine meeting between the president-elect and the Chief Justice of Nigeria in UK or anywhere.

The campaign, in a statement issued by one of its spokespersons, Bayo Onanuga, said contrary to the claim in the report, Tinubu was still in Paris, France and had not moved to London, United Kingdom.