The Peoples Democratic Party has asked the Supreme Court to review its judgment, which upheld President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in the 2019 presidential election.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, who disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja, on Monday, also asked the Supreme Court to review its judgments on the governorship elections in four states, namely Osun, Kaduna, Kano and Katsina.
In the four states, the apex court had dismissed the appeals of PDP candidates ruling in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates.
Ologbondiyan said the PDP was demanding review of the judgments because of the alleged plot by the APC “to pressure the justices of the Supreme Court to upturn the judgment of Justice Mary Odili-led panel on the Bayelsa State governorship election.”
Recall that the Justice Odili-led panel had, in its judgment on February 13, voided the election of the Bayelsa State governorship candidate of the APC, Mr. David Lyon, who was then the governor-elect.
The panel ruled that Lyon’s running mate, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, submitted forged documents to Independent National Electoral Commission as a candidate for the 2019 election and on the basis of that, he was disqualified.
Because court further held DeDegi-Eremienyo’s disqualification had infected the joint ticket with which he and Lyon contested the election and won and ordered INEC to withdraw their certificates of return and give a fresh one to the candidate with the next highest lawful votes and required constitutional spread.
Ologbondiyan, at the press conference in Abuja said, “The PDP finds it ludicrous, ridiculous and insulting to the sensibilities and respect of the Supreme Court justices for the APC to hurriedly and malevolently head for the Supreme Court to attempt to arm twist the lord justices to effect a forceful reversal of the valid, flawless and faultless judgments on Bayelsa and Zamfara states governorship elections.
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“Consequently, the National Working Committee of the PDP, after comprehensive consultations, states that our party has no choice left, given the manner with which the APC has conducted itself, but to ask for a review of the judgment of the presidential election petitions tribunal, where the issue of certificate forgery and or presentation of false information in aid of qualifications was clearly established against the APC and its presidential candidate.
“The same applies to the judgment on the Katsina State governorship election petitions tribunal, where lawyers also established a similar issue of certificate forgery.
“The PDP equally has no choice but to ask the Supreme Court to review the Kano, Kaduna and Katsina election judgments because of manifest violence and substantial non-compliance with our electoral law.
“The PDP also asks the Supreme Court to review its judgment on the Osun governorship election in view of manifest, complete and total disregard for our electoral rules in the conduct of the elections.
“Our party will not fold its hands and watch enemies of our hard-earned democracy, who contributed nothing to its birth, continue to appropriate our collective sovereignty for their selfish political gains while destroying our institutions and holding our people to ransom.
“The position of the PDP is that decisions that were taken in respect of Zamfara and Bayelsa states were valid and faultless and for the APC, because it has suffered haemorrhage, to begin to progress to political gerrymandering is totally unacceptable to us and we are going to move ahead to demand that the judgments be reviewed.”
According to Ologbondiyan, the time has come for all Nigerians to stand in unity to defend the nation and salvage it from “political marauders and oppressive elements.”
Ologbondiyan said, “Nigerians know that the APC has been going through a haemorrhage since the Supreme Court delivered valid judgments on Bayelsa and Zamfara and as a result, they are no longer interested in the logic of these judgments. They have since thrown caution to the wind to destabilise our nation and destroy our hard-earned democracy, especially the judiciary. The APC Federal Government is leading all forms of battles against the rule of law and constitutionalism.
“The PDP holds that our sacrifices for the sustenance of democracy, as demonstrated in our patriotic comportment towards the verdicts of the court on the presidential election as well as Osun, Kano, Katsina and Kaduna governorship elections tribunal, subsist.
“Moreover, there is a consensus among the majority of Nigerians and even the international community that there was an obvious miscarriage of justice by the Supreme Court panel on the Imo state governorship election, for which the PDP accordingly reverted to the Supreme Court asking it to correct the manifest mistakes and errors in that judgment, which are already in the public domain.”
