BREAKING NEWS, Politics
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THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Sunday, October 23, accused President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, of being behind the controversial arrest of some senior judges for alleged corruption.
The PDP, in a statement signed and distributed by Dayo Adeyeye, its publicity secretary, called on Nigerians to see the recent clampdown on judges by the Department of Security Services as a vindictive measure taken by Buhari and John Oyegun, chairman of the APC.
According to Adeyeye, both Buhari and Oyegun are desperate to avenge what they perceived as unfair rulings handed down by some judges against them in the past.
Specifically the PDP statement said: “It is obvious that the judiciary can be said to have functioned appropriately only when they and their party win a case.”
The statement further claimed that earlier this year, Buhari allegedly decried the injustice meted out to him by some judges many years ago.
“On the fight against corruption vis-à-vis the judiciary, Nigerians will be right to say that is my main headache for now. In my first attempt in 2003, I ended up at the Supreme Court and for 13 months I was in court.
“The second attempt in 2007, I was in court close to 20 months and in 2011, my third attempt, I was also in court for nine months.
“All these cases went up to the Supreme Court until the fourth time in 2015, when God agreed that I will be president of Nigeria,” the PDP quoted Buhari as saying in February 2016.
As if that was not grave enough, the PDP said the allegations by two Supreme Court judges Chibuike Amaechi, minister of Transportation, tried to induce them showed the depth of the administration’s contempt towards the judiciary.
He the PDP said: “We are not surprised with the mention of President Buhari in the statement by Justice Ngwuta because President Buhari has left no stone unturned to confirm the fact that he detests the judiciary and the rule of law as seen in his body language and actions since he assumed office.”
Concerning Oyegun, the PDP accused him of conniving with Buhari to “derail our nascent democracy,” as the party chair allegedly bemoaned the outcome of the Rivers State election petition appeal, which affirmed the victory of Governor Nyesom Wike as elected governor of the state. Based on that, the PDP alleged that Oyegun vowed grave consequences for the judges.
“I still find the judgment on the Rivers State governorship election totally astonishing. There is something fundamentally wrong in the judiciary. We have lost very important resource-rich states to the PDP.
“No matter how crude oil prices have fallen, it is still the most important revenue earner for the country. There is obviously something fundamentally wrong in Rivers State which needs to be investigated and addressed,” the PDP quoted Oyegun as saying.
Hence, the PDP concluded that: “On this note, it has become clearer that the present ordeals of judges in the hands of President Buhari’s DSS are the fulfilment of a series of threats by President Buhari, Hon. Amaechi and Odigie-Oyegun.”
— Oct 24, 2016 @ 14:50 GMT
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