PDP Rejects Rivers Tribunal Verdict

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said it will never accept ruling of the Rivers State Governorship Election Tribunal that sacked Nyesom Wike as governor of Rivers State. The tribunal sat on Saturday in Abuja and called for a rerun of the election within the next 90 days.

In a statement issued on Saturday by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, the party said the judgement “showed clear bias against Wike and the PDP,” describing it as “completely bizarre, unacceptable and part of the script by the APC to manipulate the will of the people.”

Metuh, in the statement, further said the PDP had earlier “alerted the nation and the international community of the heinous plot by the APC government, to use the judiciary and various security agencies to reverse the victory of the PDP in Rivers, Delta, Akwa-Ibom, Taraba and Abia states.”

PDP said the relocation of the election tribunals of Rivers and Akwa Ibom States to Abuja was suspicious, especially with the alleged “harassment of judicial and electoral officers involved in the governorship election cases in these state, using agencies of government, particularly, the Directorate of State Services (DSS) under the direct command of a known APC member, Alhaji Lawal Daura.”

Metuh noted that, “While it is convenient to them (APC) to use legal technicalities to deny PDP victory in Imo, Lagos, Ogun and Yobe states, the same rules are misapplied to wickedly favour APC petitioners in Rivers and Akwa-Ibom states.”

“It is therefore evinced that these contradictions are direct fall-out of compromises as well as boasts by the APC of being in direct and remote control of the tribunals. If not, how can one explain the fact that while governorship elections are being upturned in PDP states, in APC states, where similar claims and facts are in contention, elections are being upheld.

“Further proof of bias by the Rivers tribunal is the fact that less than 24 hours after various counsels submitted nine written addresses and documents, the tribunal rushed its notice of judgment, an action ostensibly aimed at ambushing the pending Supreme Court action on the issue of jurisdiction regarding the relocation of the tribunal outside River state, which was due to be delivered on Tuesday.

“This is not withstanding the fact that the tribunal has up to seven days after of receipt of addresses, to deliver its judgment, but chose instead, to rush to deliver this spurious verdict even on a Saturday, a development eliciting suspicion that the judgment may have since been predetermined and written even before the commencement of the case.

“The PDP calls on all Nigerians and the international community to note this growing manipulation of the judiciary by the APC government, a factor which portends great danger to our democracy and the stability of our country,” the party said.

“The PDP restates unequivocally that these judgments must not stand in view of the prevailing inherent contradictions, in addition to the huge threat they portend to our democracy and national stability,” the party declared.

The PDP urged “all lovers of democracy, particularly our members in Rivers and Akwa-Ibom state not to be daunted, as these judgments will not stand the test of the law and the will of the people. We therefore reassure that the PDP will do all within the ambit of the law to resist this criminal attempt by the APC to steal and thwart the will of the people.”