Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, berated the Presidency for allegedly allowing the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay, to cast aspersions on the integrity of the justices of the Supreme Court over their judgment on Rivers and Zamfara states elections.
The PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said Sagay’s alleged resort to hate speech against the justices of the apex court exposed the desperation of the Presidency and the All Progressives congress (APC) to blackmail and intimidate the judiciary ahead of the determination of its presidential election petition, currently before the Court of Appeal.
The opposition party noted that the comment of the presidential aide has also revealed the contempt the Presidency and the APC allegedly have for the justices of the Supreme Court.
It added that by describing the Supreme Court judgment as a “national tragedy” and “unimaginable injustice”, Sagay was allegedly calling for anarchy and rebellion against the country’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 the 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. The PDP insists that there is no way Prof. Sagay, a professor of Law, can justify his call for the rejection of the Supreme Court judgment on Zamfara and Rivers states, as the judgments are 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.
“The PDP, therefore, calls on the Supreme Court Justices to note the machinations of the APC and continue to be firm in upholding justice as has been demonstrated in the judgments on Rivers and Zamfara states elections, which serve as lessons to political parties to adhere strictly to rules of internal democracy in our electoral processes,” he stated.