The ruling All Progressives Congress on Tuesday faulted the continual attack on the judiciary by the Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
The party claimed it was an indication they were still being haunted by the ghost of their alleged inglorious past.
The APC was reacting to the PDP’s call for the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, to set up a judicial panel of inquiry to probe the Court of Appeal judgment that sacked the Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang.
The appellate court had, on Sunday, in its ruling by the three-member panel led by Justice Elfrieda Williams-Dawodu, nullified the election of Mutfwang and declared APC candidate Muntawe Goshwe in the election as the winner of the March 18 governorship poll in the state.
The opposition party also claimed it was appalled by a viral video where an APC leader, Yusuf Gagdi, a member of the House of Representatives from Plateau State, boasted that they knew people in the Supreme Court.
Reacting via a statement on Tuesday evening, National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka, expressed concern that the opposition has taken its attack on the judicial system to an “unacceptable level of contemptuous recklessness.”
Morka also dismissed the notion that the APC is plotting to hound out opposition parties in its bid to make Nigeria a one-party state.
He said, “The PDP is bereft of these values, and, sadly, they cannot imagine a ruling party with a modus operandi that is quite unlike its crooked, ruthless, lawless old self in power.
“The APC is not the PDP and should not be tainted with the PDP’s indelible badge of dishonour and disloyalty to the rule of law and constitutional democracy.
“To be clear, at no time was any committee empanelled or tasked with exerting any kind of pressure on the justices of any court regarding electoral matters or any matter.
“Atiku and his PDP are deservedly haunted by ghosts from their inglorious past. Their unjustified war of attrition against the judiciary is despicable and condemnable.
“The proposition that when the PDP wins in court, democracy is healthy and the judiciary vibrant, but when verdicts come down against them, the judiciary and other democratic institutions must be dismantled at their behest, is vain, senseless, and a flagrant disregard for basic tenets of the rule of law and constitutionalism.
“In 2019, courts upturned the electoral victories of the APC Governor of Zamfara and members of the House of Assembly and handed victory to the PDP.
“Again, in Rivers State, our party’s candidates for all elective positions were barred from contesting, paving the way for a sweeping victory for the PDP. Worse still, our party lost the governorship of Bayelsa State to the PDP by force of a court judgement. All in all, we never called the integrity of the judiciary into question.
“Again, we strongly recommend that the PDP undergo advanced institutional therapy, purge itself of base and anti-democratic proclivities, reorganise for mature and responsible opposition politics, or wind down altogether.”
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