PDP Govs: Why We Backed Atiku’s Decision To Appeal Tribunal Judgement

Mr Babalele Abdullahi and Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar

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Governors on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said it was in support of Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the party, to challenge the Judgement of the presidential election petition tribunal.

The governors said their decision to throw their weight behind Atiku’s appeal at the apex court was informed by the anomalies that they said the Judgement was fraught with.

Last Wednesday, in a landmark Judgement, the tribunal threw out Atiku’s petition challenging President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in the last election.

It held that president Buhari was ’eminently’ qualified to contest the election and was duly elected as the president, Hence the dismissal of Atiku’s petition.

Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers and a member of the PDP, in a move that came as surprise to many, congratulated Buhari openly hours after the tribunal upheld the president’s election.

In a statement on Sunday, Seriake Dickson, chairman of the PDP governors’ forum, said after studying the judgement they discovered “countless anomalies” in it.

“After painstakingly and prudently understudying line after line of the judgement, several holes were picked and countless anomalies identified by us,” he said.

“We would be doing a greater disservice and moral injustice to our party, our democracy and Nigerians in general if we turn blind eyes, swallow such bile and applaud that rape of justice”

Dickson said tkthe Judgement had put a dent on the judiciary, adding that such dent would be erase by the Supreme Court.

He also reiterate the commitment of the party towards the actualization of the Atiku-Obi Presidential ticket.

He appealed to the apex court to do the needful and should note that its integrity is at stake.

“The judgement to say the least has further painted our judiciary with darker colours, only this time around with a never-before-seen blemished coat of tar.

“However, we are hopeful that the Supreme Court will rewrite that history by ensuring that such stains and tar are removed from our judicial archives

“Without any iota of trepidation, it is most paramount for us to once more restate and reconfirm our undiluted loyalty, deserving support and maximum commitment to our great party and the Atiku-Obi Presidential ticket

“This is our stand, now and in the future. Posterity would judge us harshly if we did otherwise.” He added