By Dayo Omoogun
Irked by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)‘s move to seek a review of the Supreme Court’s decisions on the Zamfara and the more recent Bayelsa
gubernatorial elections , the main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, says it is left with no choice than to also seek a review of the court’s decisions on the Presidential polls which upheld the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari as well as the decisions in Osun, Kano, Kaduna and Katsina governorship polls.
The opposition party accused the ruling party of throwing caution to the winds and attempt to truncate the hard earned democracy through its actions.
Addressing the Press Monday, the party’s Spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan, cried foul over the APC’s attempt to pressure the justices and influence a determination in its favour.
“Our nation is already aware of the desperation of 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 judgements already delivered on the Bayelsa and Zamfara governorship elections, where the party (APC) suffered self-inflicted losses.”
The party (PDP) argued that while the general public across various affiliations believe there was a clear miscarriage of justice on the Imo governorship elections which prompted it to approach the Supreme Court for a review, the same cannot be said of the of the decisions on the Bayelsa and Zamfara election where according to the party the decisions were” valid, flawless and faultless.”
The PDP’s statement says “moreover, there is a consensus among majority of Nigerians and even the international community that there is obvious miscarriage of justice by the Supreme Court panel on the Imo state governorship election, for which the PDP accordingly reverted to the Supreme Court asking it to correct the manifest mistakes and errors in that judgement, which are already in the public domain.”
“Consequently, the National Working Committee of the PDP, 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.
“The PDP equally has 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 to our electoral law.