By Valentine Amanze
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of intimidating the Supreme Court to get a favourable judgement on the case before it on the Zamfara State Governorship election.
It explained that the PDP’s declaration that the Supreme Court had no option than to dismiss the pending application by the APC to review its judgment on the matter was suspicious.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the APC alleged that it was criminal and irresponsible for PDP, which ruled for uninterrupted 16 years to preempt Supreme Court judgement.
It stated: “Being voted out of power for maladministration should not make the PDP to seek to bring the country down by taking actions or making statements that are targeted at undermining a critical state institution like the judiciary.
“PDP has unfortunately come to be known for deploying blackmail and intimidation of state institutions as a strategy to circumvent or derail processes and procedures that are at variance with any of its inordinate interests.
“Unfortunately, they have failed woefully on the Zamfara matter, even as we reiterate that PDP is not a party to our intra-party matter before the Supreme Court.”
The APC however pointed out that there was a difference between the Supreme Court review sought on the Zamfara matter and the matters that the Supreme Court dismissed on Imo and Bayelsa states.
“Unlike what happened in Bayelsa and Imo, in Zamfara, the Supreme Court is not being requested to review its decision. Far from it. The unique thing about Zamfara’s case at the Supreme Court is that the APC is not attacking the judgement of their Lordships but only praying that they vary their consequential order for the purpose of justice. That is where the PDP, which not being a party in the matter, is scared as it found itself to have immensely benefitted from our intra-party squabbles by reaping where they never sowed,” the party stated.
Recall that while delivering the lead judgment, Chukwudifu Oputa JSC in Adegoke Motors Vs. Adesanya considered the powers of the Supreme Court (as the final Court in the land) to review its earlier decisions and said: “We are final not because we are infallible; rather we are infallible because we are final. Justices of this Court are humanbeings, capable of erring. It will certainly be shortsighted arrogance not to accept this obvious truth. It is also true that this Court can do inestimable good through its wise decisions. Similarly, the Court can do incalculable harm through its mistakes. When therefore it appears to learned counsel that any decision of this Court has been given per incuriam, such counsel should have the boldness and courage to ask that such a decision be over-ruled. This Court has the power to overrule itself (and has done so in the past) for it gladly accepts that it is far better to admit an error than to persevere in error.”
It therefore caledl on the Supreme Court to focus on dispensing justice in the case of Zamfara State and other matters before it and ignore the “ranting” of the PDP.