The National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has described as reckless and dangerous the reaction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling of the Supreme Court over the 2019 governorship election in Imo State. The apex court had nullified the election of Governor Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP and affirmed Senator Hope Uzodinma of the APC as Governor of Imo State.

The PDP on Thursday challenged the Justice Tanko-led Supreme Court panel that heard the governorship appeal on Imo to recuse itself from the pending cases on Bauchi, Sokoto, Benue and Adamawa states.

Addressing journalists yesterday at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja, Oshiomhole accused the PDP of attempting to blackmail the Justices of the Supreme Court.

He said the PDP which was a beneficiary of electoral fraud tried to deepen the culture of do-or-die politics, stressing that the former ruling party lacked the credentials to disparage the judiciary because of their antecedents.

Oshiomhole said democracy had worked and rule of law had prevailed when the PDP won in courts, while there should be no judiciary again if the APC won her cases in courts.

He said the APC still has reservations over the rulings in Rivers and Zamfara that denied the party opportunities to produce governors and the loss of senatorial seats in Ekiti and Sokoto States. Oshiohmole, who said the PDP laid the foundation for votes rigging in the polity, gave an assurance that the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration would do all within its powers to ensure electoral reform before the end of his tenure.

While reacting to the comment of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the APC national chairman said he was the least competent person to speak because he had allegedly manipulated all institutions in the past, including the judiciary.

He said, “If there is lesson to be learnt is the fact that today APC is in power, that is, few years back, we were not in power. I don’t know how long we are going to be in power. But it is safe to say we cannot be in power forever.

There is a question Nigerians are entitled to ask particularly now in the face of the judgement at the Supreme Court.

“I believe and I want to repeat it whether anybody believes it or not, what is important to me and to my party when the chips are down is where the truth lies. The interest of the Nigeria nation and our democracy is far more important than the interest of any political party and certainly, the interest of any governorship candidate whether is of the APC or the PDP.

“PDP has lost a state they never won and that the Supreme Court in their supreme wisdom re-established the fact that these 388 polling units that were not counted are part and parcel of Imo state and therefore they cannot be wished away and they have accordingly added them and they found that Hope Uzodinma is not only the highest scorer, he has the spread to be declared the winner of that election in Imo state.

“We commend the courage of the Supreme Court and we condemn in strongest term possible the attempt by PDP’s national chairman, Uche Secondus and his party to try to personalised a panel of eminent Jurists, all seven of them in their unanimous judgement, it were clear that this is the question of the law and these are the facts.

“For PDP and Secondus to call for the resignation of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) because they have lost a state that was never there is the height of recklessnes,” Oshiomhole added. (Daily Trust)