A political pressure group, the APC-Strategic Monitoring Team (APC-SMT), has stated that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) outburst on the judiciary over the recent judgements of the Court of Appeal is a misdirection of aggression and a threat to peace in Plateau State.
Addressing newsmen in Jos, Plateau State capital, the coordinator of the group, Comrade Golepji Wambutda advised the Plateau PDP to desist from blaming the judiciary for its predicaments over the recent judgements at the Tribunal and Court of Appeal.
According to him, from all indications, the judiciary is being made to be the victim, adding that the Court of Appeal is not the enemy of anyone or group but among the true gatekeepers of democracy from its root.
He said, “As far as we are concerned, the PDP should stop blaming the judiciary for its predicaments. It paraded injured players in the last election, and it is now reaping the consequences of its action, so it should blame itself rather than the judiciary or the APC.
“The law of the land must have its way regardless of whose ox is gored; emotion, threats, intimidation, or blackmail cannot subvert the democracy that is the core of Nigerian politics. This surreptitious style the Peoples Democratic Party has adopted must be made to fall flat on its face, and we are determined to achieve the same decorously.”
Wambutda said the PDP has adopted ethnic division, religion, and cheap, unsubstantiated blackmail from the person of the President of the Court of Appeal and Justices of the same court who painstakingly have abided by precedent in the conduct of her business.
He pointed out that the incitement was far-reaching as it sought to rubbish all the decisions the courts have ever made and are still making according to law and precedent.
“The petitioner, who otherwise was declared by the Electoral Umpire, cannot be denied the right to seek redress before the law merely because some party to the election is likely to be adversely affected by it. Justice knows no fear.
“This brings to the fore the reality that the fate of candidates who participated in an election is placed in the hands of first the Independent National Electoral Commission and then the Judiciary, the final arbiter of the disputes that arise therefrom,” he said.
. TheWitness
