PDP, lawmakers protest at EU, US, UK embassies

Emmanuel AmudaJanuary 31, 2020

0 5 minutes read

The leadership and the National Assembly members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Friday, January 31, has protested at the embassies of the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK) and European Union (EU) in Abuja.

The leader of the party led by National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, the party chieftains started their march at the American embassy at the Diplomatic Zone Abuja where Secondus delivered a prepared letter.

The party moved to the neighbouring United Kingdom High Commission for the same mission.

Speaking after handing the letter to UK embassy officials, Secondus alleged that the President Muhammadu Buhari , has lost control of the security of the nation, reiterating that he should resign.

He also alleged that the judiciary and the legislature have been caged.

He lamented the January 14 Supreme Court judgement which sacked Emeka Ihedioha as the Governor of Imo State, adding that it should be reviewed. .

“The action of the Justice Tanko-led Supreme Court raises very serious issues, which point only to a deliberate miscarriage of justice against our party and our democratic order by the Supreme Court.

“Your Excellency, the Supreme Court, in a host of cases, the latest and most celebrated being Atiku V Buhari & Ors, consistently decided that for a petitioner to succeed in an allegation of infraction of any provision of the Electoral Act especially one complaining about malpractice, as in this case, wrongful exclusion of votes, the petitioner must call witnesses polling unit by polling unit.

“However, in this case, the same Supreme Court was not presented any witnesses from Uzodinma/APC from the fictitious 388 polling units from where the Court allocated votes to him. Does the Supreme Court have powers to formulate and allocate votes as election results?

“The so-called results from the 388 Polling units were rightfully rejected, in line with several decisions of the Supreme Court, by the Tribunal and Court of Appeal as it was merely dumped on the tribunal in a bag, by a policeman who had no mandate of the police to testify at the Tribunal.

“The Tribunal did not even open the bag as there was no basis to do so. It is one of the great wonders of the world how the Supreme Court opened the bag, counted the results and added them to only the APC Candidate.

“What is more perplexing is the fact that INEC produced a schedule of reasons why results were not produced from the 388 units. Indeed, the election did not even take place in most of the units for one reason or another, like violence among others and so no result could possibly be obtained from those units. The results were not merely rejected or cancelled by INEC.

“Moreover, your Excellency, nobody is aware of the number of votes scored by each party from the said 388 polling units. The Tribunal or Court of Appeal did not mention or ascribe any figure from the units to any party in their decisions.

“In fact, during the cross-examination of the APC Candidate, Sen. Hope Uzodinma, he could not read any figure from the said results. He said that the figures were not clear. It, therefore, beats the imagination where the Supreme Court conjured and manufactured the figures it used in declaring Uzodinma/APC as duly elected?

“But the law is settled as decided by the same Supreme Court in Buhari v. INEC (2008); that ‘weight can hardly be attached to a document tendered in evidence by a witness who cannot or is not in a position to answer questions on the document. One of such persons the law identifies is the one who did not make the document. Such a person is adjudged in the eyes of the law as ignorant of the content of the document.’

“Furthermore, no presiding officer or party agents of the said 388 polling units were called to testify by Uzodinma/APC, who were the Petitioners.

“Moreover, is the Supreme Court saying that all the votes from the alleged 388 polling units were for the APC alone in an election that was contested by about 70 political parties?

“Your Excellency, it is on record that the analysis of the votes from the Imo governorship election as of March 11, 2019, when the results were declared was as follows:

-Total Accredited Votes: 823,743

-Total Valid Votes: 739,485

-Cancelled Votes: 25, 130

-Total Valid Votes: 714,355

But at the Supreme Court, the Total Valid Votes have increased to 950,952.

“This accounts for 127, 209 votes in excess of Total Accredited Votes of 823,743.

“The question is; can the Supreme Court sit in Abuja on January 14, 2020, to increase the total number of accredited votes in the election held in Imo State on March 9, 2019?

“Is there any law, which permits the Supreme Court or anyone else for that matter, to unilaterally increase the total accredited votes by any margin after the accreditation and or the election?

“Where did the Supreme Court get the numbers to declare Uzodinma/APC from a paltry 96,456 votes over Ihedioha/PDP votes of 276,404?

“Even if all the excess accredited votes of 127,209 manufactured by the Supreme Court were added to Uzodinma/APC it will be 223,657 votes, still less than Ihedioha/PDP’s votes of 276,494 by 42,747 votes.

“Furthermore, the victory of Ihedioha/PDP were confirmed by 2 concurrent judgments of both the Tribunal and the Court of Appeal and the tradition is that the Supreme Court hardly tamper with such decisions except it was found to be perverse. What was the evidence of perversity?

“Also, it is important to also bring to your notice that there were 2 elections on March 9, 2019, namely, Governorship and the House of Assembly.

“As already known, there was only one accreditation for the 2 elections. The APC did not win any of the 27 seats in the Imo State House of Assembly which were won as follows:

PDP won 13

AA won 8

APGA won 6

APC won 0

Total 27

“The above further questions and confronts the rationale for the judgment of the Supreme Court on Imo State.

“From the foregoing, it is our position that the Supreme Court, as presently constituted under Justice Mohammed Tanko, has become heavily compromised; lost its credibility and is now annexed to execute ignoble agenda of the APC-led Federal Government against the Nigerian people.

“With the verdict, the Supreme Court executed a coup against the PDP and the people of Imo state as well as other Nigerians, and such must not be allowed to have a place in our democracy.

“The fact is that the Supreme Court, as presently constituted under Justice Tanko, has lost its credibility and no longer commands the respect and confidence of Nigerians.

“If the people no longer repose confidence in the Supreme Court, then our democracy, national cohesion and stability are at great risk.

“The constitution of the panel that heard the appeal itself was a product of drama. The panel was changed three times and any judge that showed signs of not agreeing to murder democracy, in this case, was promptly removed by the CJN.

“The result had to be unanimous to satisfy the script of rationality. But can any judge who sat on that panel go home and sleep well? Can any judge who sat on that panel face his creator and swear that impartial justice was done? We think not.”

The PDP argued that if the flawed judgment of the Supreme Court on Imo governorship election was allowed to stand, it would be a recipe for anarchy, chaos and constitutional crisis not only in Imo state but in the entire country.

The party, therefore, called on the international community to take more than a passing glance to this serious issue in order to avoid an imminent breakdown of law and order.

The letter added: “Our demand is that Justice Tanko Mohammed immediately steps down as CJN and chairman of the National Judicial Council as Nigerians have lost confidence in him and a Supreme Court under his leadership.

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