Tribunal verdicts: APGA sponsored protests in Abia, says PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has berated the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) over what it describes as embarrassing “resort to calling out paid touts and street urchins to attempt and/or orchestrate cosmetic protests in Abia State against the verdicts of election tribunals.”

In another development, Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu yesterday cautioned against undue attacks on the Judiciary.
In a statement by its national publicity secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the PDP said that it is a crass display of shameful desperation that a political party that was defeated in duly conducted elections, as well as, in election tribunals, would resort to attempting an imaginary protest.

“For record purposes, the PDP wishes to remind APGA that our candidates in national and state elections outrightly defeated them and we have no apologies for that. In the same vein, APGA need not be told that in the governorship election, they were comprehensively vanquished by the PDP candidate, who is, by all measures, the true choice of the people.

“Furthermore, we wish to inform APGA leaders that their attempt to go into an alliance with the All Progressives Congress (APC) and pledge an unholy mortgage of Abia State treasury and the identity of their party to Bourdillon is inoperable, since the image and identity of APGA has since been lost,” the statement stressed.

The PDP also taunted its rival by declaring that APGA’s main identity, after the passage of its founder, Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, has been the former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, who is now a committed member of the PDP.

“Nigerians are aware that the weight, strength and financial muscle of APGA was concentrated in Anambra Central Senatorial zone in the elections, only for their candidate, their former National Chairman, (Chief Victor Umeh) to be completely overwhelmed, outmatched, dazed and roundly defeated by the PDP candidate.

“The people of the South East have in many ways, including the 2015 general elections, shown their support and faith in the PDP. Even in Imo state, the only state which was fraudulently taken from the PDP in the zone, the citizens have been groaning and hoping that the judiciary, as the last hope of the common man, would recover their mandate stolen at the governorship election,” said the PDP.

Meanwhile, Ikpeazu’s Chief Press Secretary, M. Godwin Adindu, yesterday decried what he referred to as attacks on members of the State Election Petitions Tribunals and some of the verdicts delivered so far.

He said the ruling PDP and many Abians endorsed the verdicts, even though not all the decisions favoured  the PDP.

Speaking to journalists in Umuahia, Adindu decried what he called the aggrieved petitioners/ opposition parties resort to blackmailing the tribunals through newspaper advertorials. He commended the judges for painstakingly arriving at their verdicts.

“We believe they dispensed justice accordingly and did justice the verdicts, the aggrieved petitioners should explore other windows open to them at the appeal courts to seek redress.”

He cited what he called grievous allegations by some of the petitioners that the tribunal members were compromised by being offered inducements in form of cash and property an