Leave Our G5 Governors Alone ..APC Warns PDP

 

THE All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over five of its governors that recently defected to the opposition party, saying there will be chaos and anarchy in the polity if the PDP declared their seats vacant.

APC, in a statement by its spokesperson, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Thursday, threatened that the polity would be rocked to its foundation if PDP declared the seats of the five governors vacant.

The opposition party warned the ruling party not to toy with the idea, while it called the alleged plan diabolical and double standard.

The party said even as PDP had continued to lick the mortal wound inflicted on it by the loss of the governors in one fell swoop, any attempt by the party to declare their seats vacant would be met with an unprecedented show of people’ will that would end, once and for all, the alleged impunity of the PDP and the presidency.

“We have irrefutable evidence that the PDP is desperately shopping for a pliant judge who will be heavily induced to declare vacant the seats of the five governors who recently defected to the APC. 

“We also have the name of the lawyers who have been retained by the PDP for this hatchet job. We are in possession of the various nefarious legal options being explored by the villainous duo of the PDP and the presidency, but we hereby serve a strong notice to the duo that any attempt by anyone through any means other than what is provided for in Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, will not only have grave consequences but will leave the polity severely bruised.

“We know the PDP and the presidency are anarchic and nihilistic, and will not mind to pursue any narrow and selfish objective, even if doing such can plunge the nation into crisis. 

“But their cup is gradually getting full. Having got away with their trademark impunity in Delta and Anambra states, these lawless, reckless and feckless duo of maleficence now believe they can continue to act without regards to the laws of the land and with no scintilla of decency.

“We wish to state unequivocally that should the PDP go ahead with this plan, there will be widespread repercussions, as the APC has resolved that henceforth, every act of impunity of the PDP and the presidency will be met with stiff resistance in the form of a vociferous telegraphing of people power, the likes of which have not been witnessed in these parts,” it said.

APC said with its 16 governors and control of the National Assembly, it had what it took to use people power to stop alleged acts of impunity, disregard for the laws of the land and barbaric brigandage.

The party also warned against any attempt by the PDP and the presidency to turn back the hands of the clock in the cleaning up of the judiciary, by allegedly inducing a servile and disreputable judge to do the duo’s bidding.

“We recognise the efforts of the present Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) to sanitise the judiciary since she assumed the mantle of leadership, but she should not allow any black leg to reverse the gains that have been recorded on the altar of unmitigated avarice. 

“This is because if that happens, Nigerians will hold the judiciary vicariously liable for the catastrophic consequences that may follow,” it said.

Accusing the PDP of engaging in alleged double standard, APC said “for all of 14 years, elected members of the state houses of assembly, as well as the National Assembly have been defecting mostly to the PDP and no court has ever declared their seats vacant.

“The late Senator Wahab Dosunmu and Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, then of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), blazed the trail when they defected to the PDP within a year of their election. Since then, scores of elected lawmakers at state and federal levels have defected to the PDP without any eyebrows being raised or anyone declaring their seats vacant.

“When Governors Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State and Theodore Orji of Abia State, both elected on the platform of the PPA and Governor Isah Yuguda of Bauchi State, elected on the platform of ANPP, defected to the PDP, nobody declared their seats vacant.

“As a matter of fact, the PDP under the late President Umaru Yar’Adua organised an elaborate reception to welcome Governor Yuguda to the PDP. 

“Why then should the case of the five PDP governors (still counting) who have joined the APC be different? Why is the PDP suddenly afraid of taking the same medicine it has been administering to others? Does it mean that all the bravado that has been displayed by the PDP, which says it is not bothered by the defection of the five governors, is just a facade to hide its deep pain at the monumental loss?” the party queried.

It also asked the PDP and the presidency to be guided by the ruling of the Supreme Court after the PDP attempted to make former Vice President Atiku Abubakar lose his seat and also strip him of his privileges, following his defection to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).