The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) linked with last week’s violent attack and invasion of a High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The party in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said: “Nigerians were alarmed when armed thugs, sponsored by some desperate leaders of the dysfunctional and violent-prone APC, attacked the court, shot their way through, assaulted judicial officers and disrupted proceedings in a bid to stop the court from giving a ruling against them.”
It noted that the attack came on a day the court set aside to make pronouncement on a suit related to APC’s ward congresses for which some APC leaders in a faction allegedly aligned with the Presidency, including a serving minister, unleashed hoodlums on the court.
The statement further read: “We are particularly alarmed that since the attack, no arrest has been made, while the Federal Government has not taken any concrete steps to bring the perpetrators of this treasonable act to book.
“The failure of the APC-led Federal Government to act validates allegations that the attack was coordinated as part of the design to intimidate and emasculate the judiciary and ultimately erode its ability to boldly dispense justice on election matters, ahead of the 2019 general election, having realized the electoral failure that awaits the APC.”
The PDP said it was also aware of secret interferences, threats, harassments and coercion of judicial officers, since the sting operation on judges, to do APC’s bidding in cases related to PDP members as well as the 2019 elections
“This assault on the judiciary is coming on the heels of the invasion of the National Assembly by hoodlums sponsored by the agents of the APC, who brazenly stormed the Senate chambers, disrupted proceedings, threatened our lawmakers and carted away the mace, after which none of them has been brought to book”.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
