The governing All Progressives Congress, APC, has denied allegations by the Peoples Democratic Party that it was planning to use federal might to alter elections results and replace some election petitions tribunal judges.
The PDP spokesman, Olisa Metuh, who addressed a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, alleged that to achieve its aim, the APC-led federal government has formed an unholy alliance with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Department of State Service (DSS) to transfer upright judges in the election tribunals of River, Akwa Ibom, Delta and other states won by the PDP in the last general elections.
Reacting to the allegation, the APC asked the leading opposition party to stop dragging the image of the nation’s judiciary in the mud.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the PDP is throwing wild allegations against the tribunals in Rivers and other states because they know they stole the votes in those states.
“The affected states are the cash cows of the PDP, hence the party is so jittery about losing the states, which they know they did not win in the first instance”, Mohammed said.
He added that the opposition party was still suffering from its defeat at the last elections just as he insisted that the APC and President Muhammadu Buhari would not interfere in the works of the judiciary.
“The president and the government will not micromanage the judiciary because we have respect for the integrity of the judiciary.
“The PDP knows that there were no elections in these states and that is why they are not comfortable. Jega is not the final arbiter in election matters, only the courts can determine if elections were properly held or not.
“Why is the party also contesting the results of elections in others states where the APC won? Did INEC not say there were elections in those states”, the statement said.
It therefore asked Nigerians to discard the “cry of the PDP because the party is crying wolf where there’s none”.
