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National chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus, has said the Supreme Court panel led by the Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Muhammed Tanko, which delivered judgment on Imo State governorship election, is heavily compromised.
Consequently, the PDP has asked the CJN to resign and step aside from chairing the seven-man panel of Supreme Court. Secondus said the Supreme Court had lost its credibility going by the verdict it passed to remove a PDP governor, Emeka Ihedioha.
The Supreme Court had on Tuesday, in a judgment removed the immediate past governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha, and declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hope Uzodinma, as duly elected governor of the state.
Secondus, while addressing a world press conference in Abuja, Thursday, said, “The Supreme Court no longer commands respect from Nigerians because it has tampered its integrity.
“The fact is that, the Supreme Court, as presently constituted under Justice Tanko, has lost its credibility and no longer commands the respect and confidence of Nigerians.
“If the people no longer repose confidence in the Supreme Court, then our democracy, national cohesion and stability are at great risk. The constitution of the panel that heard the appeal itself was a product of drama.
“The panel was changed three times and any judge that showed signs of not agreeing to murder democracy in this case was promptly removed by the CJN.
The result had to be unanimous to satisfy the script of rationality. But can any judge who sat on that panel go home and sleep well? Secondus questioned.
He stated that the removal of Ihedioha was a grand plan by the APC hierarchy to remove all PDP governors from office, saying the judgment was a pointer to anarchy and chaos, and that Justice Tanko should immediately step down to avoid throwing the country into crisis.
Specifically, Secondus described the judgment on Imo governorship election as groundless and advised it should be quickly reversed.
“In the light of extraordinary circumstances that vitiate that judgment as a product manipulation and a clear coup d’etat against the will of the people of Imo State, we demand that the decision of the Supreme Court on the Imo Governorship Election be reviewed and reversed in the interest of justice.
“We demand that Justice Tanko Mohammed, the CJN and his colleagues on the Imo Governorship Panel recuse themselves from the remaining cases involving PDP in the Supreme Court.
“We state for the records that the Supreme Court under Justice Tanko Mohammed shall be held responsible if there is any breakdown of law and order in any state as a result of judgments procured solely for political rather than judicial reasons as is currently happening,” he stated.
He further said the judgment of the Supreme Court voiding the lawful election of Emeka Ihedioha (who scored 276,404 votes) and awarding fictitious votes to declare Hope Uzodimma of the APC, who scored 96,458 votes as governor of Imo State, was highly irrational, unfounded, a provocative product of executive manipulation and a recipe for crisis, which should not be allowed to stand.
“With the verdict, the Supreme Court executed a coup against the PDP and the people of Imo state as well as other Nigerians, and such must not be allowed to have a place in our democracy.
“The question is, how many witnesses did Uzodinma/APC call from the 388 polling units from where the Supreme Court allocated votes to him.
“The so called results from the 388 Polling units were rightfully rejected, in line with several decisions of the Supreme Court, by the Tribunal and Court of Appeal as it was merely dumped on the tribunal in a Ghana Must Go bag, by a policeman who had no mandate of the police to testify at the Tribunal.
“The Tribunal did not even open the Ghana Must Go bags as there was no basis to do so. It is one of the great wonders of the world how the Supreme Court opened the bag, counted the results and added them to only the APC Candidate.What is more perplexing is the fact that INEC produced a schedule of reasons why results were not produced from the 388 units,” he stated.
He further said it was on record that the votes analysis from the Imo governorship election as at March 11, 2019, the results were: Total Accredited Votes: 823,743, Total Valid Votes: 739,485, Cancelled Votes: 25,130, Total Valid Votes: 714,355, respectively.
He questioned the Supreme Court total of valid votes which increased to 950,952 and said it accounted for 127, 209 votes in excess of Total Accredited Votes of 823,743.
Disclosing that the PDP had intelligence before the verdict on the Imo Governorship, Secondus revealed that the hierarchy of APC had decided that it must use the Supreme Court to capture the states won and controlled by the PDP such as Imo, Sokoto, Bauchi, Adamawa and Benue.
“Can the PDP rightly trust the impartiality and independence of the panel headed by Justice Tanko Mohammed, the CJN, to adjudicate on the remaining cases involving the PDP like Sokoto, Benue, Bauchi, Adamawa, Plateau and others?
“Is the same fate awaiting the Governors of these states that are controlled by the PDP and other states like Kano where the PDP clearly won and was robbed?
“The PDP firmly holds that if the flawed judgment of the Supreme Court on Imo governorship election is allowed to stand, it would be a recipe for anarchy, chaos and constitutional crisis not only in Imo state but in the entire country.
“Our party has it in good authority that Justice Tanko and his panel are working on instruction from certain forces in the Presidency to use the Supreme Court to take over states lawfully won by the PDP and award them to the APC,” he insisted.
Solomon Ayado, Abuja
