President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday reiterated his government’s highest respect of his for the institution of the judiciary as the third arm of government in a statement issued in reaction to controversies over the raid on the residences and arrest of some judges in some parts of the country early Saturday morning.
While assuring that he will not do anything to undermine the independence of the judiciary, the President said in the statement signed by Garba Shehu, described the arrest of the Judges as a “surgical operation… specifically targeted at corruption and not at the judiciary as an institution.
“President Buhari remains a committed democrat, in words and in his action, and will not take any action in violation of the constitution.
“In a robust democracy such as ours, there is bound to be a plurality of opinions on any given issue, but there is a convergence of views that the country has a corruption problem that needs to be corrected.
“But reports by a section of the media are giving us cause for concern.
“In undertaking the task of reporting, the media should be careful about the fault lines they open. It is wrong to present this incident as a confrontation between the executive and judicial arms of government.
“The Presidency has received assurances from the DSS that all due processes of the law, including the possession of search and arrest warrants were obtained before the searches.
“To suggest that the government is acting outside the law in a dictatorial manner is to breach the interest of the state,” the President said.