The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has warned the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, to be mindful of his utterances following the judgement of the Supreme Court which nullified the election of David Lyon as Governor-elect replacing him with Senator Douye Diri.
In a statement on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola
Ologbondiyan, the party described Oshiomhole as ‘factional national
chairman’ who has ‘no stake whatsoever in the wellbeing of his own home state’.
“The party warned Oshiomhole, to steer clear of Bayelsa State as his
apparent plots to trigger violence in the state has failed.
“The PDP further counselled Oshiomhole to be careful with his utterances and not use any forms of venomous garrulity and clear misuse of language to destabilise our nation and truncate our hard-earned democracy,” the statement said.
Earlier, the APC national chairman rejected the verdict of the court
which sacked the candidate of his party, David Lyon, as the
governor-elect in Bayelsa.
He had told a press conference at the APC secretariat in Abuja that the
nobody was qualified to be sworn in as governor of Bayelsa State.
According to him, no one can be sworn in legally as governor in Bayelsa
on Friday unless there is a deliberate abuse of the legal process.
In its reaction, the PDP described Oshiomhole’s comments on the ruling
of the Supreme Court as “empty and inconsequential ranting”.
It stressed that the people of Bayelsa were aware that the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) cannot take instructions from any individual.
The party said it was law-abiding but asked Oshiomhole to desist from
what it called odious designs against Bayelsa, its government, as well
as its people. It urged the people of the state to remain calm, saying as their mandate has been restored and cannot be taken away by the ranting of any individual.
The reactions from the PDP and the APC national chairman followed the
verdict of the apex court which sacked Lyon and his running mate,
Biobarakuma Degi-Eremieoyo, as the winners of the November 16, 2019 governorship election.
A five-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Mary Peter-Odili had
ordered INEC to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to APC
candidates and issue a fresh one to the candidate of the party with the
next highest votes, and with the required constitutional spread of votes
in the results of the election.
Justice Ejembi Ekwo, who read the lead judgment, had disqualified
Degi-Eremieoyo as a candidate in the election for submitting forged
certificates to INEC and upheld the November 12, 2019 judgment of the
Federal High Court in Abuja.
He held that the deputy-governorship candidate had infected the joint
ticket with which he and the Lyon ran for and won the election.
