THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday accused the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, of an alleged attempt to use the husband of the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Adamu Bulkachuwa, to circumvent the law and influence the Election Petition Tribunals in Ekiti and Osun States which were constituted by her.
Independent Electoral Commission Officials examining some Electoral Materials
The party declared that the recent “gift” of the APC Bauchi North Senatorial ticket to Adamu Bulkachuwa, the husband of Justice Bulkachuwa, after he lost the primary election organised by the party to Usman Abubakar Tuggar is an indication of how desperate the ruling party has become to cover the several infractions it committed in Ekiti and Osun States which are now subject of litigations and pending before several courts in the country.
The PDP noted that “findings show that Usman Abubakar Tuggar, won the Bauchi North APC direct primary election in six of the seven local government areas in the Senatorial District, while his challenger, Adamu Mohammed Bulkachuwa won in only one.
“But when the names of candidates for the 2019 national elections were released last week, it was Adamu Bulkachuwa that was named the APC senatorial candidate for the Bauchi North Senatorial District, the development that immediately sparked suspicion among political parties in the country.
In a statement by the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party Prince Diran Odeyemi, the PDP said: “Having won the governorship elections anyhow in the two states of Ekiti and Osun without properly covering its track, APC has resorted to using the judiciary to further circumvent people’s wishes for PDP to return to power in the two states.”
“We hope President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Bulkachuwa will read well the warnings signs and shun every poisoned bait cast at her by the badly fractured APC and the regime it handed Nigerians. She must continue to uphold the independence of the judiciary. We implore the National Judicial Commission, NJC, Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, the international community, amongst others to henceforth closely monitor the activities of Justice Bulkachuwa and pronouncements of Court of Appeal in order to guarantee the neutrality of our courts”, it said.
They’ve exposed desperation to win—APC
Reacting, the APC said it was shocked that the PDP has again condemned the reconstitution of the members of Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and has threatened violence if the PDP loses at the tribunal.
In a statement by APC’s Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, in Osun State, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, the party described the allegation “as a very irresponsible action by the PDP and we condemn it strongly.”
Oyatomi said: “By this assertion, the PDP has exposed its desperation to win, even if the justices say it lost the election.
The statement reads: “In trying to run down the tribunal members and indeed the President of the Court of Appeal, the PDP accused both the President of Appeal Court, her husband and her son as certified members of APC, therefore the President cannot dispense justice in the matter.
“That’s arrant nonsense. Assuming that the allegations were true, the fact that the Appeal Court President is not sitting on the matter destroys PDP’s argument. If she were sitting on the tribunal, the PDP might have a case. But in this instant, the President of the Court of Appeal, by law is discharging her responsibility to set up the tribunal. Nobody else is empowered to do so, under our law.
“We are inclined to believe that the PDP is on edge because it could not penetrate the current set up of the tribunal to do its fraudulent bidding. ‘No matter how strongly the PDP tries to question the integrity of the judges, it would not be able to frustrate their work.
“If the PDP were smart, it should go to the tribunal with solid legal argument and proof that will not only convince the judges, it will also be clear to the layman. No amount of desperation can win this case for the PDP.”
No comments:
Post a Comment