The Peoples Democratic Party is not mincing words after the Election Petition Tribunal in Abuja nullified the election of PDP-led government in Taraba state.
The party said the reason given by the tribunal for arriving at the bizarre decision is intriguing and further exposes the contradictions and double standards inherent in most tribunal rulings against PDP interests recently.
Chief Olisa Metuh, PDP National Publicity Secretary, said in a statement on Saturday said that the Taraba state tribunal ruling was a manipulation by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC Federal Government using unorthodox means to decimate the opposition.
“It is rather curious and a great conflict of irony that the Taraba tribunal sitting in Abuja on security grounds faulted the conduct of PDP primaries shifted to the same Abuja on security reasons”, the party stressed.
The PDP said if the tribunal is faulting the party primaries as basis for its decision, it then means that no APC gubernatorial candidate can stand the test, as their party never had acceptable primaries in any of their states.
The PDP wants democracy watchers globally to recall that it had earlier alerted the nation and the international community of the grand design by the APC to use the judiciary to wrestle some PDP states, particularly Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Taraba states.
“Evidence that Taraba ruling was a product of Presidency manipulation can be deduced from the fact that few hours before the judgment was delivered, the APC had arrogantly announced their victory on the new media”, it said.
Metuh further said the continuous use of executive power to win court judgement will not work well for the APC led government as the PDP will do all within its power to stop the anomaly. He chided the Judiciary for its weakness in allowing the Executive to manipulate it.
He called on all party members across the country to remain undaunted as the party is prepared and ready to challenge the ruling in the appellate courts, assuring all members of victory.