The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is demanding a review and reversal of the supreme court judgement on the 2019 governorship election in Imo state
Addressing a conference on Thursday, Uche Secondus, chairman of PDP, said the supreme court judgement must be reversed in the interest of justice.
“In the light of extraordinary circumstances that vitiates that judgment as a product manipulation and a clear coup d’etat against the will of the people of Imo state, we demand that the decision of the supreme court on the Imo governorship election be reviewed and reversed in the interest of justice,” he said.
“Furthermore we demand that Justice Tanko Muhammed, the CJN and his colleagues on the Imo governorship panel recuse themselves from the remaining cases involving PDP in the supreme court.
“We state for the records that the supreme court under Justice Tanko Muhammed shall be held responsible if there is any breakdown of law and order in any state as a result of judgments procured solely for political rather than judicial reasons as is currently happening.
“The supreme court, in a host of cases, the latest and most celebrated being Atiku V Buhari & Ors, consistently decided that for a petitioner to succeed in an allegation of infraction of any provision of the electoral act especially one complaining about malpractice, as in this case, wrongful exclusion of votes, the petitioner must call witnesses polling unit by polling unit.
“The question is, how many witnesses did Uzodinma/APC call from the 388 polling units from where the supreme court allocated votes to him.
“The so called results from the 388 Polling units were rightfully rejected, in line with several decisions of the supreme court, by the tribunal and court of appeal as it was merely dumped on the tribunal in a Ghana Must Go bag, by a policeman who had no mandate of the police to testify at the tribunal.”
He said the PDP has it on good authority that the chief justice of Nigeria (CJN) and his panel are working on instruction from certain forces in the presidency to use the supreme court to take over states lawfully won by the PDP and award them to the APC.
Meanwhile, Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of making reckless statements to intimidate the judiciary and cause anarchy in the country.
He said this in reaction to a statement by Uche Secondus, PDP national chairman. Secondus had said the removal of Emeka Ihedioha as governor of Imo state by the apex court should be reviewed and reversed.
But speaking with reporters at the party’s national secretariat on Friday, Adams Oshiomhole, APC national chairman, accused the opposition party of “carefully” planning an unrest following the decision of the court.
“The PDP yesterday used language that even people who are partially mad in a democracy are not expected to use,” Oshiomhole said.
“We watched as PDP made reckless statements that are designed not only to intimidate the judiciary but calculated to lay the foundation for carefully planned unrest with a view of undermining the peace and stability of the Nigerian nation.”
The APC chairman said Ihedioha did not get two-thirds votes across the 27 local government areas of the state which is required by law to be pronounced winner of the poll.
“In a society that is committed to fairness and the rule of law, the returning officer ought not only to be dismissed but he also ought to have reported himself to the security how he arrived at the decision to declare Emeka Ihedioha as governor,” he said.
Oshiomhole added that when the supreme court declared PDP as winners of Zamfara and Rivers states, the APC obeyed the order even when it was not palatable.
