by Gbade Ogunwale, Abuja
The national leadership of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has fingered the Minister of
Transportation Rotimi Amaechi and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami
in an alleged plot to void the March 9 Rivers State governorship
election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
had declared Governor Nyesom Wike of the PDP winner of the election,
after weeks of suspending collation of the results of the governorship
election.
But at a media briefing in Abuja on Sunday, spokesman
for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, raised the alarm, alerting of alleged
plots by Amaechi and Malami to trigger constitutional crisis in the
state.
According to the PDP, the two Ministers have been
allegedly mounting pressure on the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria
(CJN), Justice Tanko Mohammed to void the election.
The main
opposition party alleged the two Ministers are allegedly working on the
CJN to reverse the February 12, 2019 final judgment of the Supreme Court
upholding the exclusion of the governing All Progressives Congress
(APC) from the Rivers election.
The trial court had earlier ruled
the Rivers APC out of participating in the 2019 National Assembly,
governorship and state assembly elections following the nullification of
the party’s flawed primaries in the three categories of election.
By
implication of the apex court’s ruling, the APC was barred from
fielding candidates for the three categories of election in Rivers.
Based
on the ruling of the apex court, INEC had excluded the Rivers APC from
the ballots in the 2019 federal legislative, governorship and state
assembly polls.
The PDP is worried by the prospects of Amaechi
and Malami succeeding in having the entire elections in Rivers state
voided by the Supreme Court and the possibility of the apex court
reversing its earlier judgment and ordering the conduct of fresh
elections in the state to accommodate the APC.
It said:
“Nigerians can also recall how the APC, having been frustrated by its
lawful exclusion, used compromised security agents to violently disrupt
the smooth conduct of elections in Rivers State.
“In the course
of the elections, the APC however adopted the governorship candidate of
the African Action Congress (AAC), bankrolled his election and made
compromised security agents and thugs available to him, with the view to
using them to muscle votes.
“In spite of these conspiracies by
the APC, the will of the people of Rivers state prevailed, as they
braved the odds, resisted all machinations and voted overwhelmingly for
the PDP and all its candidates.
“The spontaneous jubilation in
Rivers State and across the country, in addition to the general
outpouring of goodwill to Governor Wike and other candidates of the PDP
on their victory, clearly demonstrates the PDP popularity and acceptance
not only by the people of Rivers, but also by lovers of democracy all
over world.
“However, not done with the desperation to cause
confusion and crisis in Rivers state, the leader of the APC in the
state; Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, has engaged in fresh
conspiracies to subvert the will of the people as expressed at the
polls.
“The PDP has information of how Rotimi Amaechi has been
going around in Rivers State, giving assurances that he has the ears of
the Supreme Court under the leadership of Acting CJN, Justice Tanko
Mohammed, and that the Supreme Court will reverse its final judgment on
APC primaries and create the way for fresh elections in Rivers State, in
which the APC will be allowed to participate.
“Rotimi Amaechi
goes about boasting that the apex court in the land, the Supreme Court,
will reverse itself and order for fresh conduct of all the elections in
Rivers State”.
The PDP described the alleged scheming by the two
cabinet Ministers as completely reprehensible and unthinkable in a
democratic process.
Source:- Thenationonlineng
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