Atiku alleges Tinubu scheming to bribe and pervert justice
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that Bola Tinubu and his All Progressives Congress (APC) are plotting to bribe the five Justices on the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) and all the way to Supreme Court Justices to rule in favour of the President-elect.
Atiku levelled the allegation through PDP National Publicity Secretary Debo Ologunagba who told journalists in Abuja that Nigerians and the international community should know of revelations, reports, and allegations of plots by the APC to influence the tribunal.
“The PDP also alerts of recent intimidation, harassment, threats and vicious attacks by APC leaders against Nigerian youths and eminent Nigerian personalities for speaking out against APC’s planned moves to install a government that does not enjoy the mandate of majority of Nigerians as expressed at the polling units,” Ologunagba said.
“The alleged planned onslaught by APC leaders on eminent Nigerians and our democratic institutions, including the judiciary, stems from APC’s apprehension, given the weight of evidence against it as well as the continuing refusal by majority of Nigerians to accept the outcome of the flawed presidential election.
“There are apprehensions in the public space, having regards to the reputation of certain individuals within the highest level of the APC, who have demonstrated capacity and proclivity to compromise democratic institutions in our country.
“It will be recalled that on May 5, 2023, our party raised alarm over the massively condemned comments by the APC presidential candidate, Senator Bola Tinubu at the commissioning of some judiciary projects in Port Harcourt Rivers State, wherein he attempted to corrupt, cultivate and patronise the judiciary.
“More alarming are allegations in the public space of attempts by certain APC leaders to compromise the judiciary with heavy financial inducement and to orchestrate trumped-up allegations of impropriety against judicial officers.
“The PDP calls on the APC and its leaders to immediately come clean and publicly address Nigerians and the world on these disturbing allegations and revelations which are already in the public domain.
“Further to this is the provocative resort by the APC and its leaders to threaten Nigerians with treason for speaking out against the manipulations of our democratic processes by the APC.
“The bizarre response by INEC, which is an umpire that ought to be independent, to the petition of the PDP and our candidate, Atiku Abubakar, requesting for the dismissal of our petition, is further evidence of the complicity, corruption and compromise of INEC by the APC.”
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APC accuses PDP of blackmail
However, Tinubu’s spokesman and Labour Minister of State Festus Keyamo accused the PDP of resorting to cheap blackmail and reverse psychology to hoodwink the public into aligning with its petition at the tribunal, per reporting by Vanguard.
The PDP would do well to put its act together and argue its case before the tribunal, said Keyamo, who was chief spokesman of the defunct APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC).
His words: “The PDP’s press conference making all sorts of allegations regarding an alleged plan by the APC to influence the outcome of the court’s proceedings in the Presidential Election Petitions over which hearings would begin tomorrow in Abuja is nothing but just hot air.
“PDP and its sister company, the LP, have been the ones sponsoring surrogates to ‘speak out’ against the outcome of the largely free and fair 2023 presidential elections when their cases are still pending in court.
“That is contempt of court and we are within our rights to correct the wrong impressions about the elections being created before Nigerians and the international community. How they see that as ‘attack’ is comical.
“In fact, these Siamese twins of PDP and LP (we all saw Obi genuflecting before his boss, Atiku, yesterday in Yenagoa) are the ones issuing veiled threats to our judiciary and judicial officers, either by themselves or through their surrogates, be they in religious circles or in civil society or the labour unions. So, by pretentiously raising this so-called alarm, they are playing a game of ‘reverse psychology’.
“In all the States where the PDP won and the LP also won (Senate, Governorship and the others), INEC have filed their responses in court defending those declarations of the winners as correct.
“The uninformed, they should be alerted that it is the legal duty of INEC to stand by their declarations in court and what they are doing in the case of APC in the Presidential Election Petition is not strange. They should have also queried INEC for defending them in those States where they won.
“This panic press conference is a clear attempt by the PDP to play to the gallery. Instead of going to court tomorrow to begin to prove its case, it has resorted to cheap and emotional blackmail.
“The allegations are infantile, lacking in substance and devoid of proof. Nigerians should dismiss them with a wave of the hand, please.”
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