- We will ask for sack of Oyetola, Ganduje, Masari, El-Rufai’
- Jobless opposition leaders should join rice farmers, says APC
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said on Monday it will ask the Supreme Court to reverse its judgment which ratified the election of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The opposition party is also set to challenge the apex court judgment that revalidated the election of Governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Abdulahi Ganduje (Kano), Aminu Masari (Katsina) and Adegboyega Oyetola (Osun) – all of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
But the APC dismissed the planned move as “no surprise”, adding that the PDP is made up of “jobless characters” who should “consider taking up rice farming.”
PDP spokesman Kola Ologbodiyan told reporters on Monday that the party’s demand for a review of the Supreme Court verdict is hinged on the request by the APC for the Supreme Court to reverse itself on governorship elections in Zamfara and Bayelsa states.
The PDP said: “Our National Working Committee, after comprehensive consultations, states that our party has no choice left, given the manner with which the APC has conducted itself, than to ask for a review of the judgment of the presidential election petition tribunal, where the issue of certificate forgery and or presentation of false information in aid of qualifications was clearly established against the APC and her presidential candidate.
“The same applies to the judgment on the Katsina governorship election petition, where lawyers also established similar issue of certificate forgery.
“We equally have no choice than to ask the Supreme Court to review the Kano, Kaduna and Katsina election judgments, because of manifest violence and substantial non-compliance with our electoral law.
“We also ask the Supreme Court to review its judgment on the Osun governorship election in view of manifest, complete and total disregard to our electoral rules in the conduct of the elections.”
PDP accused the APC of desperate attempts to subjugate and intimidate the Supreme Court, for the purpose of annexing the apex court over its judgments on Bayelsa and Zamfara governorship elections – all delivered in favour of the PDP.
The PDP called the attention to what it described as attempts by the APC to “destabilise our nation and destroy our hard-earned democracy.”
It added that the time had come for Nigerians to stand in unity to defend the nation and salvage it from political marauders and oppressive elements.
The PDP said: “Our nation is already aware of the desperation by the APC to annex the Supreme Court, subjugate and browbeat the justices and direct judicial determinations to suit their selfish ends.
“The public space is already awash with reports of how the APC has been threatening and piling pressure on the justices of the Supreme Court to force a reversal of valid judgments already delivered on the Bayelsa and Zamfara governorship elections, where the party (APC) suffered self-inflicted losses.
“Nigerians know that the APC has been going through a hemorrhage since the Supreme Court delivered valid judgments on Bayelsa and Zamfara and as a result, they are no longer interested in the logic of these judgments.
“They have since thrown caution to the wind to destabilise our nation and destroy our hard-earned democracy, especially the judiciary. The APC Federal Government is leading all forms of battles against the rule of law and constitutionalism.
“The PDP holds that our sacrifices for the sustenance of democracy, as demonstrated in our patriotic comportment towards the verdicts of the court on the presidential election as well as Osun, Kano, Katsina and Kaduna governorship elections tribunal, subsist”.
The PDP claimed that there was a consensus among majority of Nigerians and even the international community, that there was obvious miscarriage of justice by the apex court panel on the Imo State governorship election.
The nation’s main opposition party had already approached the Supreme Court for a review and reversal of its judgment on the Imo State election, in view of “manifest mistakes and errors.”
The party considered it “ludicrous, ridiculous and insulting to the sensibilities and respect “of the Supreme Court justices for APC to “hurriedly and malevolently” head to the apex court to attempt to “arm twist” the justices to effect a forceful reversal of the “valid, flawless and faultless” judgments on Bayelsa and Zamfara state governorship elections.
The PDP vowed not to sit and watch “enemies of our hard-earned democracy, who contributed nothing to its birth,” to continue to appropriate the nation’s collective sovereignty for selfish political gains while destroying the institutions and holding the people to ransom.”
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the APC said: “The call by the PDP, asking the Supreme Court to review its judgement on the presidential election and governorship elections in Osun, Kano, Kaduna and Katsina states, has, once again, exposed the joke the opposition party has turned itself into in our nation’s political space.
“Never in the history of our democratic journey has a political party made mockery of what a responsible opposition politics entails. The PDP’s call has once again, reinforced our belief that the PDP has become a clog in the wheels of our country’s political evolution.
“For the APC, PDP’s latest antics is no surprise. Nigerians would recall that we have consistently reiterated that the opposition party, having been overwhelmingly rejected at the polls in 2015 and 2019, has been exhibiting strange behaviours.
“We believe it has been difficult for some leaders of PDP to cope for so long outside of power. There is obviously a lot of idleness at the Wadata Plaza secretariat of the PDP.
“At this period that our government is working hard to ensure food sufficiency in the country, we urge those jobless characters at the Wadata Plaza to seriously consider taking up rice farming. This would make them useful to our country.”
The Supreme Court in October 2019 dismissed an appeal by the PDP and its Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar to overturn the result of February’s presidential poll won by President Muhammadu Buhari, the APC candidate.
The judgment delivered by Chief Justice Tanko Muhammad brought an end to a bitter eight-month legal tussle that trailed the announcement of the result by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The PDP described the judgment as “provocative and barefaced subversion of justice.”