Connect with us

Politics

Keyamo tackles PDP for blackmailing judiciary ahead of presidential election tribunal’s hearing

Published

on

The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, on Sunday night, accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of trying to blackmail the judiciary ahead of the hearing at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

The tribunal will begin hearing on the petitions challenging the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 election and filed by the PDP flag bearer, Atiku Abubakar and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had during a press conference in Abuja alleged that the APC was making moves to influence the outcome of the panel’s hearing.

He added that some leaders of APC are working to compromise the judiciary with heavy financial inducement or orchestrate trumped-up charges against the judicial officers.

Keyamo, who reacted to the claim in a statement in Abuja, alleged that PDP was using cheap blackmail to gain sympathy ahead of the hearing.

He said: “The PDP’s press conference today, making all sorts of allegations regarding an alleged plan by the APC to influence the outcome of the court’s proceedings in the Presidential Election Petitions over which hearings would begin tomorrow in Abuja is nothing but just hot air.

READ ALSO: PDP cautions judiciary against compromise of presidential election petition outcome

“PDP and its sister company, the LP have been the ones sponsoring surrogates to ‘speak out’ against the outcome of the largely free and fair 2023 presidential elections when their cases are still pending in court.

“That is contempt of court and we are within our rights to correct the wrong impressions about the elections being created before Nigerians and the international community. How they see that as an ‘attack’ is comical.

“In fact, these Siamese twins of PDP and LP (we all saw Obi genuflecting before his boss, Atiku, yesterday in Yenagoa) are the ones issuing veiled threats to our judiciary and judicial officers, either by themselves or through their surrogates, be they in religious circles or in civil society or the labour unions. So, by pretentiously raising this so-called alarm, they are playing a game of ‘reverse psychology’.

“In all the states where the PDP won and the LP also won (both Senate, Governorship and the others), INEC have filed their responses in court defending those declarations of the winners as correct. To the uninformed, they should be alerted that it is the legal duty of INEC to stand by their declarations in court, and what they are doing in the case of APC in the presidential election petition is not strange. They should have also queried INEC for defending them in those states where they won.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now