As the nation awaits the outcome of the appeals he and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar filed at the Supreme Court, the presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Major Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), has passionately appealed to the court's justices to protect their image and integrity.

Buhari, who spoke to journalists in Abuja over the weekend through the secretary of his Presidential Campaign Committee, Engineer Buba Galadima, tasked the eminent jurists to guard their integrity jealously against the intrusion of those he regarded as "charlatans, thieves and discredited persons."

Buhari was reacting to a news item posted on a news website, Sahara Reporters, which alleged that the Presidency had set up a high-powered committee made up of some former state governors, charged with the responsibility of getting a favourable judgement for President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, at the court. He described the information as "disturbing."

"We came across that report and, frankly speaking, that report is disturbing, not just to us as litigants, but it should be disturbing to every right-thinking Nigerian that at the level of the Supreme Court, people can allow themselves to be influenced by any institution or anybody, any highly placed individual in Nigeria," he said.

He added, "If the Supreme Court, as reported by Sahara Reporters, is being approached by charlatans, those that I consider as thieves in our society, those people who have been discredited and have been taken to court for embezzlement and the Justices who are supposed to be pious justices of the Supreme Court, can even sit down under the same shade to discuss issues, then this nation must pray fervently for securing its soul."

Buhari pointed out that the piece of information contained in the Sahara Reporters news story may be correct because the same organisation had predicted accurately the outcome of two previous election tribunal judgements.

"Anything that is coming from Sahara Reporters, to me, is credible because I have no cause to doubt their report because they have reported in the past and were proved right in many occasions. So I would have no reason to doubt this one."

He posited further that the speculation of the website in this regard has been confirmed by the President's spokesman, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, who told State House correspondents last Thursday that Buhari was crying wolf where there is none because his case at the Supreme Court is weak.

He therefore advised the Supreme Court justices to do everything to protect their image.

"It is my candid advice to the esteemed justices of the Supreme Court that they should never allow their image to be soiled. They are in the last lap of a relay race to the here beyond," he said.

He added, "They should not allow some little boys to toy with their integrity, to toy with their image. They should stand firm, to act according to their oath of office."

In a separate interview with journalists, Buhari himself said that his motive is to end all forms of oppression, tyranny and despotism against the common man in the country, adding that is why he remains in politics.

He said his venturing into politics was not to satisfy personal interest, but to emancipate the masses and the country from the bondage of oppression, brazen corruption, political rascality and immorality in the body polity.

Buhari, who made the remarks when a contingent of ANPP Kaduna State Executives, together with all the 23 local government executives of the party, paid him a Sallah homage at his Kaduna residence yesterday, further urged all to exercise patience as he will continue the struggle against injustice, election manipulation and total disregard to due process in the country.

"If it is for me, I would have abandoned politics, but I remain in it in order to make my little contribution in salvaging the common man in this country, irrespective of ethnicity, religion, geographical location or even political affiliation.

"I was a governor, a minister, a general in the Army, a head of state, and Chairman Petroleum Trust Fund at various times. So, if I am looking for comfort for myself or my family, I would not enter politics. I am doing it whole-heartedly for the sake of the Nigerian masses who are deprived, impoverished and totally marginalised in the distribution and management of the their nation's resources."

In his remarks earlier, the state ANPP gubernatorial candidate, Honourable Sani Sha'aban, had said Nigeria needs such kind of personalities who will "rekindle hope and genuine aspiration in the minds of the ordinary masses, especially at this crucial period of brazen corruption, and public looting of the treasury."

He said he and his fellow politicians don't have any ill-feeling against anybody apart from demanding their rights in accordance to the religious scriptures and the nation's constitution, while they believe it is God who gives power to whomsoever He wishes at the time He wishes.

"I want our teeming supporters to know that we are very confident on the much-awaited Supreme Court verdict coming up simultaneously at the end of this month on the mandate given to them by the electorate but usurped by some politicians in the PDP, both at state and national level," he said.

The state Chairperson of the party, Hajiya Hafsat Baba, in her short remark, reiterated her unflinching support for Buhari and decried the looting of public funds "which has become a trademark of the PDP-led government in the state, in the name of 11-point Agenda."

She said considering the number of the local government executive in the visit to Buhari's residence, it is a clear testimony that there is no faction in the ANPP in Kaduna State, and as such anyone who deals with the Kabiru Umar faction "does so at his own risk."

"We are aware that the PDP government in Kaduna is now planning to recruit some mercenaries in the name of ANPP members who will later decamp to PDP in order to undermine our support base," she said.

She called on all "genuine" ANPP supporters to continue to be loyal to the executives and support the cause of Buhari as they await the court verdict on October 23.