The All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned the Edo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to stop dragging the judiciary into politics, “instead of campaigning hard for September 19 election”, Igbere TV reports.
In a statement forwarded to Igbere TV Thursday, the Party added that “exercising a legal right is not forum-shopping or disrespect for the judiciary.”
The PDP had addressed a press conference in Benin, at which it claimed the APC success at getting some judges to recuse themselves from cases, for likely bias, was an attack on the judiciary.
But in a swift response, the Chairman of the Edo State APC Media Campaign Council, Mr. John Mayaki wondered why the PDP reacted with “mischievous hysteria”, to the granting of a routine application to guarantee justice for both parties in the suits.
“The chief judge of the Federal High Court acted on the merit of the APC application, and did what honest and proper procedure demanded,” a release by the Edo APC campaign explained. “How that equated an attack on the judiciary and forum-shopping only exists in the PDP’s jittery and frenzied application.”
The APC said it had nothing but high praise and respect for the courts, for taking actions that would assure everyone of justice and fairness; but wondered why the PDP was dragging the courts to the partisan front.
“We should be very wary of dragging the judiciary into politics,” the party warned, adding that even a desperate PDP should know that.
The APC wondered why, in its “idleness and listlessness”, the PDP had suddenly turned spokespersons for the judiciary, instead of focusing on its campaign, where it was losing steam, every passing second.
It added that this news conference was the latest example of how the Edo PDP wasted its time on “frivolities”, explaining however that the PDP was employing such ploys to excuse the electoral disaster that awaits it on September 19.
“Let the world bear us witness. When we, the APC, were busy campaigning and selling our message of hope and SIMPLE Agenda to our Edo people, PDP was busy addressing useless press conferences to push out lies and deceit. When it loses badly on election day,” the party added, “it would rush to the same press conference to lament its failure and allege rigging.”
