Presidential Tribunal: PDP Governors reject verdict

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors Forum has backed the bid of the party to challenge the verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, which dismissed the petition of the party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, at the Supreme Court.

The forum in a statement by its chairman and Governor of Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson, yesterday, said the judgment stood justice on its head.

The PDP governors noted that if the judgment is not challenged, it may become a clog in the wheel of the country’s democracy, as it will allegedly send wrong signals to future generations of Nigerians.

The statement read in part: “After painstakingly and prudently understudying the line after line tenets of the judgment, several holes were picked and countless anomalies identified by us.

“We would be doing a greater disservice and moral injustice to our party, our democracy and Nigerians in general if we turn blind eyes, swallow such bile and applaud that rape of justice.

“The judgment, to say the least, has further painted our judiciary with darker colours, only this time around with a never-before-seen blemished coat of tar.

However, we are hopeful that the Supreme Court will re-write that history by ensuring that such stains and tar are removed from our judicial archives.

“The apex court should know that its integrity is at stake and in order to avoid it been shredded to particles, must employ all known technicalities to save our nation and the future of Nigerians yet unborn from a development that may further make us a perpetual laughing stock amongst the comity of nations. And Nigerians are very hopeful that these wrongs will be righted.

“Without any iota of trepidation, it is most paramount for us to once more restate and reconfirm our undiluted loyalty, deserving support and maximum commitment to our great party and the Atiku-Obi presidential ticket. This is our stand, now and in the future. Posterity would judge us harshly if we did otherwise.”

•Excerpted from a Daily Sun report.