Senator Aisha Jummai Alhassan, one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial nominees told Senators when she was being screened on Wednesday that her nomination was not a ploy to get her to withdraw her petition against the result of Taraba gubernatorial election.
Senator Alhassan, fondly known as Mama Taraba, 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”.
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 bailiff fails to serve papers on a party to litigation for favour, 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 corruption 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.