Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), on Wednesday vowed that the administration of President Umaru Yar'Adua would never be stampeded into losing focus in pursuit of the principle of the rule of law in governance.

In a statement in Abuja, the minister accused some unnamed persons who had in the past benefited from judicial pronouncements of now sponsoring reports on the internet aimed at casting aspersions on the integrity of the judiciary.

Aondoakaa said such sponsored reports were aimed at intimidating, influencing, stampeding and pressurising the judiciary into losing focus from the purpose of its pursuit of the principle of rule of law.
The statement, signed by Hon. Onov Tyuulugh, the special assistant to the minister, noted that the current administration believed that the rule of law is the core element of substantive democracy. "The administration shall not be provoked into sacrificing this core achievement on the altar of public sentimentalism," he said.

According to him, the administration is irrevocably committed to running a government that places high premium on the importance and independence of the judiciary which, he said, had resulted in the constitutionalization of democratic politics in the country today.

"To embark on very cheap blackmail of this administration and the judges will not deviate our focus and belief in the fact that judicial independence is a central component of any democracy and is crucial to the separation of powers, the rule of law and human rights.

Aondoakaa said he would never be "deterred by the blackmail, intimidation and stampede of those used to garrison tactics, those who desire law without justice, those with the narrow minded contention that justice is done only when they win.”