Presidential Poll: Ex-APC scribe seeks visa ban against Tribunal justices

A political activist and former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of
the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, on Sunday
called on the international community to place visa restrictions on
the five justices of the Appeal Court that presided over the
Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) over what he termed the
gross miscarriage of justice and flagrant breach of the constitution.
Frank also called on the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the
Supreme to review the tribunal’s ruling and sanction the Justices for
the “deliberate perversion of justice.”
Reacting to the recent judgement in favour of the presidential
candidate of the APC, Frank in a statement made available to newsmen
in Abuja on Sunday, said it was obvious that the judgement was written
by elements in the presidency.
He said that he was convinced that PEPT’s ruling on the fact that it
was not necessary to present certificates to contest for political
offices in the country had created problem for the nation’s education
sector as it would now be difficult to convince children to go to
school or tell those in school to study hard to attain excellence in
their educational pursuit.
He, however, called on the United States of America (USA), United
Kingdom, United Nations and other critical democratic stakeholders to
take a punitive step against the five justices led by Justice Mohammed
Lawal Garba, by placing them and their families on visa ban.
According to Frank, both local and international election observers
had raised questions about the conduct of the election, particularly
unjustified interventions by security forces in favour of Buhari and
the APC, “they said the voting process wasn’t transparent and the
Nigerian civil society group, a coalition made up of over 70 civic
groups that monitored the balloting also said the outcome wasn’t
credible.
According to him, “yet the presiding justices of the PEPT in giving
their judgment said the election was credible and dismissed the
petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and their Presidential
Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar
“I, therefore, call on the international community such as the US, UK,
EU and others to place a visa ban on the five justices of the PEPT and
members of their immediate family
“The onus is on the Supreme Court to show Nigerians and the world that
the judiciary is indeed the hope of the common man; it is incumbent on
them to show that they are indeed independent and have not been
colonised and made a rubber stamp of the executive in view of the
unthinkable verdict of the five justices of the PEPT.
“They simply turned the judiciary into a black market where justice
was measured and sold to the highest bidder. The executive has always
accused the judiciary of corruption and the five justices have just
confirmed it by this judgment.
“They have brought shame on the Nigerian judiciary and must be
sanctioned appropriately by the NJC to serve as a deterrent to others
and restore sanity to the judiciary.”
Frank called on the international community to help Nigeria out of her
present mess, saying that the country “is at a point where it may have
civil unrest or a break up as many regions have resumed agitation
following the hope-dashing verdict.
According to him, “the international community should place visa
restrictions on these five justices like they have done to some
corrupt politicians that participated in rigging the last general
elections.
“Since these five justices have traded away the opportunity to redeem
the country’s democracy by ridding it of electoral fraud, the Supreme
Court must now be courageous enough to rectify this judicial fraud in
order to save Nigeria from collapse. Show Nigerians that the judiciary
is still the last hope of the common man,” Frank said.
He called on the apex court to save the judiciary from the onslaught
against it by the executive, and failure to reverse PEPT’s ridiculous
verdict would inevitably render the judiciary toothless.

…verdict can’t stand – PDP Govs

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors Forum has backed the bid
of the party to challenge the verdict of the Presidential Election
Petition Tribunal, which dismissed the petition of the party and its
presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, at the Supreme Court.
The forum in a statement by its chairman and Governor of Bayelsa
State, Seriake Dickson, yesterday, said the judgment stood justice on
its head.
The PDP governors noted that if the judgment is not challenged,  it
may become a clog in the wheel of the country’s democracy, as it will
allegedly send wrong signals to future generations of Nigerians.
The statement read in part: “After painstakingly and prudently
understudying the line after line tenets of the judgment, several
holes were picked and countless anomalies identified by us.
“We would be doing a greater disservice and moral injustice to our
party, our democracy and Nigerians in general if we turn blind eyes,
swallow such bile and applaud that rape of justice.
“The judgment, to say the least, has further painted our judiciary
with darker colours, only this time around with a never-before-seen
blemished coat of tar.
“However, we are hopeful that the Supreme Court will re-write that
history by ensuring that such stains and tar are removed from our
judicial archives.
“The apex court should know that its integrity is at stake and in
order to avoid it been shredded to particles, must  employ all known
technicalities to save our nation and the future of Nigerians yet
unborn from a development that may further make us a perpetual
laughing stock amongst the comity of nations. And  Nigerians are very
hopeful that these wrongs will be righted.
“Without any iota of trepidation, it is most paramount for us to once
more restate and reconfirm our undiluted loyalty, deserving support
and maximum commitment to our great party and the Atiku-Obi
presidential ticket. This is our stand, now and in the future.
Posterity would judge us harshly if we did otherwise.”
Meanwhile, a pro-Buhari group in the South East, the
Zikist-Buharist-Movement (ZBM) has called on the apex Igbo
socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, to congratulate
President Buhari on his victory.
The group described the victory as well-deserved, noting that it has
set the tone for the South East geopolitical zone to go for the
presidency in 2023, going by the zoning convention.
Chairman of ZBM, Stanley Ohajuruka and Secretary, Godwin Onwusi in a
statement after their meeting in Enugu, yesterday, expressed happiness
over the unanimous decision of the tribunal.
“Your Excellency, your remaining four years is important to us,
because of the trust the international investors and lenders have on
you, due to your uncommon integrity quotient. We, therefore, plead
that South East is adequately considered to avoid the exodus of our
youths to South Africa and other places,” the group stated.