A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) group has rejected insinuation that the National Caretaker Committee (NCC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is manipulating the Supreme Court in order to secure a favourable judgement in the party’s ongoing leadership litigation.
The apex court has reserved judgement over whether or not the NCC or the Senator Ali Sheriff-led National Working Committee (NWC) is the valid leadership of the party.
But a group which goes by the name Concerned PDP Members said in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday that it had uncovered a plot by the NWC to intimidate the Supreme Court through the false claim that the court was working with the NCC to deny Sheriff of victory.
Signed by Comrade Edwin Ateke on behalf of the group, the statement urged Nigerians to disregard the claim as it was an old habit previously employed by the faction to intimidate the judiciary over the last Ondo State gubernatorial election.
The statement said: “We have uncovered another plot by Ali Modu Sheriff to discredit and intimidate the justices of the Supreme Court and the entire judicial system in Nigeria.
“One of such plan is the fabricated and concocted story accusing Governor Wike of Rivers State and Fayose of Ekiti State of bribing the judges in order to sway judgment in favour of the mainstream PDP at the Supreme Court.”
The group alleged that the rival faction had set a machinery in motion “to carry out other clandestine and unholy activities with a view to further intimidate the judiciary.”
It recalled that the NWC employed the same tactic, prior to the November 26, 2016 Ondo State Governorship election, when according to the statement, it wrote several frivolous and baseless petitions, accusing the Special Appeal Panel of collecting bribe that led to the panel excusing itself from the case.
It added that the NWC had also made the same baseless allegation against PDP governors when the first panel of the Supreme Court was constituted to seat on the PDP leadership matter.
The statement further said: “This is a complete affront on our hard earned democracy and an onslaught against the judiciary and we demand a full scale investigation on this matter.
“The courts must be allowed to carry out their responsibilities without undue interference by the lackey of the ruling APC.”
While urging Nigerians and PDP members across the nation to disregard the allegations coming from the NWC, the statement admonished that nobody should be allowed “to continue to toil with our legal system and other agencies of government.”
Asked to react to the story the acting National Publicity Secretary to the Sheriff-led PDP, Bernard Mikko, declined saying that the party could not join issues with “amorphous” groups.
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