The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Labour Party (LP) have berated the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as a threat to judicial independence and national security.
The parties said this while condemning the “threat” letter addressed to the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The PDP in a statement issued on Monday by its national publicity secretary, Debo Ologunagba, described the letter as a pre-emptive move to intimidate the judiciary.
It read:
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“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.
“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 strongly condemned the threats made by the APC, whether through their lawyers or officials.
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It saw the threats as a deliberate attempt to intimidate and harass both the judiciary and the Nigerian people.
Party asserted that the ultimate goal of the APC was to blackmail the court and undermine the independence of the judiciary, preventing it from carrying out its duties in the law.
It said:
“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?”
On its side, the LP in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Obiora Ifoh expressed its concern regarding the legal interpretation of the law on the requirement of 25 percent of lawful votes cast in the FCT.
According to the LP, such an interpretation cannot “lead to absurdity, chaos, anarchy and alteration of the very intention of the legislature.”
The statement read:
“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.”
