PDP questions presidential tribunal’s delay in releasing judgment ecord

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday raised the alarm over what it called undue delay by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to release the record of the judgment it delivered last Wednesday on the petition against the election of Muhammadu Buhari.

It said that the delay was affecting its ability to promptly file an appeal to upturn the judgment at the Supreme Court.

The party in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said:

“Our party and millions of supporters across the country believe that the delay is a calculated attempt by some quarters to frustrate our appeal at the Supreme Court, where Nigerians have expressed confidence to get justice as well as restore the integrity of our judiciary, which has been eroded by the tribunal.

“It is instructive to state that the Court of Appeal is aware that our party and candidate have mandatory 14 days to appeal to the Supreme Court, yet it is delaying in releasing a judgment that was read for nine hours and which it wants the public to believe it actually wrote.”

The PDP said that it feared that “this development is lending credence to suspicion in the public space that the judgment is being tampered with and altered, in the name of correcting errors, knowing that there is no way the verdicts can stand the scrutiny of the Supreme Court.”

“We also hope there is no link between the circumstances surrounding this delay and the boasts by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, speaking for the Buhari Presidency, as well as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, that justice will not be served to the PDP and our presidential candidate at the Supreme Court” the party added.

The PDP further drew attention to its earlier allegation that the APC was relentlessly struggling to manipulate processes, adding that “we are happy that our party and Nigerians in general, have the full video and audio recording of the judgment and we will not hesitate to expose any underhand act by anybody.”