Tinubu trying to intimidate PEPC while failing to address clear cut allegations against him, they insist
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Bola Tinubu is trying to intimidate the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) by claiming his lawful sack for failing to meet legal requirements to be President would lead to “anarchy,” both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) have alerted Nigerians.
The PDP said the threat by Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) voiced by their lead counsel Wole Olanipekun, SAN in the respondents’ final written address to the court is a pre-emptive move to intimidate the judiciary.
The LP insisted a lawful removal of Tinubu from the Vila cannot lead to anarchy but will rather enforce the rule of law and strengthen democracy.
The address, which was supposed to be kept confidential by the court until final oral arguments in open court, was leaked to the press by the Tinubu camp at the weekend to whip up public sentiments to counter accurate judicial interpretation of the Constitution.
“The statement by the lawyers in the said written address, threatening crisis and anarchy in the country in the event of the court ruling that their clients did not meet the constitutionally required 25 per cent votes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), is subversive, an affront to democratic order and assault on corporate existence of the nation,” PDP National Publicity Secretary Debo Ologunagba said in a statement.
“It is alarming and disturbing that the APC externalised to the public their final written address, in which they also threatened national peace, if the court upholds the clear provisions of Section 134 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), with regard to mandatory and statutory requirements for which a candidate in a presidential election can be declared winner.”
The PDP stressed the threat by the respondents is intended to intimidate and harass the judiciary and Nigerians.
“This action is ostensibly to set the stage to orchestrate violent crisis in various parts of the country with the intention to further blackmail the PEPC.
“We ask, why is the APC externalising their final written address to the public? Is the APC being pre-emptive and now seeks to heighten tension, subvert the judicial process and trigger anarchy, having realised the weakness of their case before the PEPC?”
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Tinubu seems to dodge addressing alleged certificate forgery and perjury
Tinubu’s failure to win at least 25 per cent of votes cast in the FCT mandated in Constitution is not the only plank of the petitioners for his disqualification.
Other key allegations the petitioners levelled against Tinubu, which, if proven in court, will get him sacked from office, include:
- The Independent National Election Commission (INEC) violated its own published guidelines by failing to transmit electronically polling unit results live to its IReV.
- INEC declared Tinubu winner before the final collation of results.
- Tinubu did not score the highest lawful votes cast in the election.
- Tinubu forged his purported degree certificate from Chicago State University by stealing the identity of someone called Bola A. Tinubu – who filled her admission form with a biodata in which she identified herself as a female; that she was born in 1954 and attended Government College, Lagos.
- Tinubu the President previously claimed to have attended Government College, Ibadan; that he is a male, and was born in 1952.
- In the forms Tinubu submitted to the INEC, he committed perjury by swearing on oath that he owns documents that are not his.
The respondents’ written address Olanipekun submitted to the PEPC seems to have avoided addressing Tinubu’s alleged forgery of a degree certificate from Chicago State University – the most clear cut and most potent allegation against him.
The law must be followed, LP insists
Per reporting by The Guardian, LP National Publicity Secretary Obiora Ifoh also issued a statement arguing that legal interpretation of the law, as provided for in the Constitution on 25 per cent of lawful votes cast in the FCT cannot “lead to absurdity, chaos, anarchy and alteration of the very intention of the legislature.”
He added: “The truth of the matter is that there are no sentiments, when it comes to matters of law. The law is the law, and once the law has stipulated the manner and how a matter must be carried out, it must follow that pattern.
“If the law has stated the requirement that a presidential candidate must meet before he can be declared, there is no shortcut to it.
“Therefore, if the Constitution, which is the ground norm of the law in Nigeria, has stated clearly that you must score at least 25 per cent in FCT before the president can be declared, anything short of that cannot remedy it.
“We insist that no amount of threats from the APC on judges in the tribunal can change the processes and requirements that the law has put in place. It must be followed and that is the position of Labour Party.”
