APC accuses PDP of blackmailing judiciary, calls it liability to democracy

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has launched a scathing attack on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), accusing it of waging a campaign of calumny against the judiciary and the electoral system.

In a press statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, Esq., the APC said the PDP was in a “morbid apprehension” that it may lose more seats that it won “against clear legal provisions” of the Electoral Act and the Constitution.

The APC was reacting to a press conference by the PDP’s Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, who alleged that the APC was plotting to use some “hugely compromised Election Petition Courts” to upturn some of the PDP’s victories.

The APC dismissed the allegation as baseless and unfounded, saying it was part of the PDP’s “nefarious electoral agenda” to disparage, denigrate and blackmail the democratic institutions, particularly the judiciary, into submission.

The APC also accused the PDP of having “hallucinations” about a one-party state, saying it was a reflection of the PDP’s own “crude, intolerant, unpatriotic and anti-democratic zealotry”.

READ FULL PRESS STATEMENT BELOW:

FCT, ABUJA

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

PRESS STATEMENT

*PDP HAS LOST ITS PURPOSE, NOW A LIABILITY TO PARTISAN DEMOCRACY*

In its morbid apprehension that it may yet lose more Governorship or National Assembly seats that it won against clear legal provisions of the Electoral Act and Constitution of the Federal Republic, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has continued to wage attacks calculated to disparage, denigrate and blackmail our democratic institutions, particularly the Judiciary into submission to its nefarious electoral agenda.

At a press conference earlier today, the PDP’s Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum, alleged, without any shred of evidence, that the All Progressives Congress (APC) was plotting to use some “hugely compromised Election Petition Courts” to upturn some of its victories. In Damagum’s warped view, this was tailored towards “systemic emasculation of opposition” and actualization of an imaginary one-party state.

PDP’s hallucinations about one-party state is understandable only in the context of its unrealized plan to rule Nigeria for 60 years but now seeks to taint APC with its own scripted crude, intolerant, unpatriotic and anti-democratic zealotry.

What is by far more repugnant, devious and a clear and present threat to our democratic way of life is the PDP’s relentless and unjustified objurgation of our courts and judges. The PDP has maligned and poured invectives on our judges at every turn since its miserable performance in the general elections. When it is not accusing judges of bias or corruption, it is calling for the disbandment of some judicial panels. Yet, the same party has been the biggest beneficiary of the vibrancy and independence of the judiciary since the country’s return to civilian democracy in 1999.

In its psychotic hypocrisy, the PDP screams to high heavens when court judgements are against it, but jubilantly extols verdicts by the same judiciary in its favour. Such anti-democratic and insanely manipulative politics is wrong and has got to stop.

Indubitably, the PDP has lost its purpose, its essence, if it ever had any. As a ruling party, the PDP was a reckless rolling stone of corruption and underdevelopment, now rudderless and antithetical to the idea of what an opposition party ought to be. The PDP is a liability to partisan democracy.

In other democracies, opposition political parties offer answers to national important questions and provide competing visions for good governance and economic development. The PDP cannot even manage its own internal affairs let alone offer valuable contributions for the good governance of our country.

Rather than dissipate its low energy on rallying other opposition parties into a phantom coalition, the PDP may wish to undertake critical introspection, reinvent itself, if not already too late, instead of blaming the courts and others for the self-inflicted hot mess the party is in, or save our partisan democracy the embarrassment by winding down altogether.

Signed:
*Felix Morka, Esq.*
National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC)