*Prince Uche Secondus, PDP National Chairman speaking during the protest in Abuja
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The worrisome political developments and strange court rulings in Nigeria witnessed yet another drama as the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday embarked on a protest to the United States Embassy and the British High Commission in Abuja, Nigeria’s political capital to submit two separate petitions to officials of the embassies. The protest started from the PDP alternate office in Maitama.
After submitting the petitions to the US Embassy and the British High Commission, Prince Uche Secondus, the National Chairman of PDP, also told his hosts and the media that Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari has lost control of activities in the country and as such, he can no longer ensure the protection if lives and properties in Nigeria, which is Africa’s most populous nation.
He also said that the judiciary was being caged as it is no longer independent. Excepts from the petition titled, “Perversion of Justice: Deliberate Efforts At Truncating Democracy in Nigeria,” reads: “This is to bring to your notice and that of the United States of America, a serious case of judicial compromise and deliberate perversion of justice by the Supreme Court of Nigeria, which is now threatening our democracy as well as the peace, stability and corporate existence of our dear nation.
“You may recall that our party, the PDP, the leading opposition party in Nigeria, has been raising issues regarding the continuous interference and arm-twisting of the judiciary by the executive arm and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to influence the outcome of election petitions in various courts, annul elections won by our party and transfer victory to the APC.
“Your Excellency, it may have come to your notice that there have been serious protests in various states of our nation threatening the stability of our nation over a recent judgment of the Supreme Court. On the l4th of January 2020, the Supreme Court, led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mohammed Tanko, in a most bizarre judgment and against the dictates of all laws and judicial practice overturned the Imo State governorship election clearly won by Emeka lhedioha of PDP, who had since been sworn in and handed the state over to the APC and its candidate, Senator Hope Uzodimma.
“It is instructive to inform you that this perversion of justice has already sparked off protests in various parts of our country and has become a clear threat to peace, unity and stability of our nation and the survival of our democracy. We rejected the judgment with clear call for a judicial review and ultimate reversal of the judgment by the Supreme Court. Nigerians had been at a shock over the voiding of the lawful election of Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, who scored 276,404 votes and awarding fictitious votes to declare Hope Uzodimma of the APC, who scored 96,458 votes as govemor of Imo state that the Supreme voided.
“In order to achieve this, the Supreme Court, on its own, declared additional votes (beyond the official number of accredited voters) from purported 388 polling units, not certified by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and donated same to the APC and its candidate to declare them winner. The action of the Justice Tanko-led Supreme Court raises very serious issues, which point only to a deliberate miscarriage of justice against our party and our democratic order by the Supreme Court.
“Your Excellency, the Supreme Court, in a host of cases, the latest and most celebrated being Atiku V Buhari & Ors, consistently decided that for a petitioner to succeed in an allegation of infraction of any provision of the Electoral Act especially one complaining about malpractice, as in this case, wrongful exclusion of votes, the petitioner must call witnesses polling unit by polling unit. However, in this case, the same Supreme Court was not presented any witnesses from Uzodinma/APC from the fictitious 388 polling units from where the Court allocated votes to him. Does the Supreme Court have powers
to formulate and allocate votes as election results..?”
