In an interview with ARISE NEWS, Ibrahim Abdullahi, Deputy National Publicity Secretary, PDP, said that he considers justice to be exactly what every common Nigerian will be able to see, feel, and understand. He says all the things that will justify the credibility of the elections, beginning with the credibility and eligibility of the candidate of the APC, fell short of expectations, and it is an affront to the rule of law itself.
He said that he expected the elections to be nullified and a rerun ordered, as that would have made a lot of sense. “For the respected judges to say that from the beginning to the end, they saw nothing wrong, from the eligibility of the candidate down to the election proper, which fell short of expectations, including the deployment of technology that we thought would improve the integrity of the process, was flawed in the admission of INEC itself.”
Abdullahi states that the issues that were expected to be thrashed as pre-election matters were thrashed sufficiently by the lawyers; “All the judges brought were technicalities informed by sentiments, and it is unfortunate.”
The PDP Deputy National Secretary said that to ensure that the process of democracy is deepened and its operations strengthened through the courts, the candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, has spoken on his confidence in the Judiciary as a sanctuary, saying, “We are approaching the Supreme Court with an open heart in the hope that they will deploy their wisdom at the level to look at the issues that the tribunal refused to see, which were proven beyond reasonable doubt by the PDP lawyers.”
He added that “we hope to have fairness and justice at the Supreme Court level, as the PEPT judgment fell short of substantial justice.”
He said that Prof. Yakubu, the INEC chairman, assured the people, including going to Chatham House, and assured the world that the presidential election was going to be a hundred percent technology-driven, and “if he comes midway to say anything went short, it is unfortunate and a sad narrative to Africa’s democracy.”
In an assuring statement, Ibrahim Abdullahi said, “The PDP is undeterred, their candidate Atiku was confident on air, and the entire PDP is on the same page. If anyone, the PDP is gingered that is why we didn’t waste time in saying we are approaching the Supreme Court for an interpretation of the verdict from the PEPT.” He says it is not the first time the PDP will be robbed of an election, and they are familiar with the process.
He says the judges had already taken a stance, and there was no likelihood the lawyers were going to convince them. “We had a 12-hour waste of time for what we could have been told in 5 minutes.
He concluded by saying that the PDP needs to have the judgments at hand to weigh their options and see if indeed what the judges said reconciles with common sense. “There is nothing in the judgment notes that will have the elections and its verdicts justified.”
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