Amaechi, AGF putting pressure on CJN to cause constitutional crisis in Rivers ― PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party has accused the All Progressives Congress, led by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, of working with the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), to cause constitutional crisis in Rivers State over the already decided case on the elections in the state by the Supreme Court.

The PDP levelled the accusation on Sunday at a news conference addressed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in Abuja.

The party said it had been informed of how the “desperate APC figures and their agents” have been mounting pressure on the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Mohammed, to reverse the February 12, 2019 final judgment of the Supreme Court, which upheld the verdict of the trial court that lawfully excluded the APC from participating in the National Assembly, Governorship and State Assembly Elections in Rivers State, having nullified the party’s flawed primaries in the state.

Ologbondiyan recalled that in nullifying the APC primaries and barring it from fielding any candidates in Rivers State for the 2019 general elections, the High Court held, and rightly too, that APCs’ primaries in the state were invalid and cannot be considered.

According to him, acting upon the final judgment of the Supreme Court, the Independent National Electoral Commission on February 23, 2019 held the Presidential/National Assembly elections and on March 9, 2019 conducted the governorship and State House of Assembly elections in Rivers State in which the APC, having been lawfully excluded, did not participate.

He said: “Having been frustrated by its lawful exclusion, the APC, however, adopted the governorship candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), bankrolled his election and made compromised security agents and thugs available to him, with the view to using them to muscle votes.

“However, not done with the desperation to cause confusion and crisis in Rivers State, the leader of the APC in the state has engaged in fresh conspiracies to subvert the will of the people as expressed at the polls.

“The PDP has information of how Rotimi Amaechi has been going around in Rivers State, giving assurances that he has the ears of the Supreme Court under the leadership of Acting CJN, Justice Tanko Mohammed, and that the Supreme Court will reverse its final judgment on APC primaries and create the way for fresh elections in Rivers State, in which the APC will be allowed to participate.

“Rotimi Amaechi goes about boasting that the apex court in the land, the Supreme Court, will reverse itself and declare for fresh conduct of all the elections in Rivers State. This is completely reprehensible and unthinkable in our democratic process.

“If this is allowed to occur, it will also amount to the highest travesty of justice, apart from being a direct abuse of court process. The Supreme Court is the highest temple of justice in our country and as such must protect itself from all forms of manipulative tendencies of the APC.”