The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has criticized the Presidency for allowing the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof Itse Sagay to cast aspersions on the integrity of the Justices of the Supreme Court over the Court’s widely accepted judgment on Rivers and Zamfara states elections.
The party which spoke through its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan in a statement on Sunday held that Prof. Sagay’s resort to incitement and hate language against the Supreme Court Justices further exposed the desperation of the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives congress (APC) to cow, blackmail, intimidate and attempt to annex the judiciary, particularly, the Supreme Court, ahead of the determination of PDP’s Presidential election petition, now before the Court of Appeal.
PDP noted that Prof. Sagay’s comment had also revealed the level of condescension, derision and contempt the Buhari Presidency and the APC have for the Justices of the Supreme Court.
It argued that by declaring the upholding of justice by the Supreme Court as a “national tragedy” and “unimaginable injustice”, and suggesting that, “we (probably, his party members) should not allow” the judgment as delivered, Prof. Sagay is calling for anarchy and rebellion against the Nigeria’s constitutional democratic order and rule of law.
“Our party believes that such intentional attack on the integrity of the Supreme Court can only emanate from feverish apprehensions by the Buhari Presidency and the APC that they might not have their way in the Presidential election petition, hence this resort to blackmail.
“As a law-abiding party, the PDP holds the integrity of the justices as well as the institution of the judiciary very high and do not support this attempt by agents of the APC to clip and sequester the judiciary for their partisan interests”, it stated.
PDP insisted that there was no way Prof. Sagay, a professor of Law, could justify his call for the rejection of the Supreme Court judgment on Zamfara and Rivers states, as the judgments were in protection of rule of law, democratic ethos as well as the wishes and aspirations of the people over the attempt by the APC to take control of their states through manipulations and awarding of fictitious votes to their candidates.
It therefore called on the Supreme Court Justices to note the machinations of the APC and continue to be firm in upholding justice as had been demonstrated in the judgments on Rivers and Zamfara states elections, which it noted served as lessons to political parties to adhere strictly to rules of internal democracy in the nation’s electoral processes.
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