The Abia State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned protest by members of Labour Party in Umuahia over the removal of Sen. Darlington Nwokocha of Labour Party by the court of Appeal.
PDP described the protest led by the Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Emmanuel Emeruwa as irresponsible.
The Court of Appeal had in its ruling on Abia Central Senatorial election removed Darlington Nwokeocha of the Labour Party, declaring PDP’s Col. Austin Akobundu winner of the February 25 National Assembly election.
The PDP in a statement on Tuesday by Hon. Elder Abraham Amah, the party’s Vice Chairman/Acting State Publicity Secretary in the state said the protest is misplaced and irresponsible.
The PDP says the protest is a demonstration that people who p populate the Labour Party are unintelligent, urging the security agencies to intervene to forestall the breakdown of law and order.
Read part of the statement below:
The Abia PDP had issued a press statement on Sunday after it received intelligence reports that the Labour Party had mobilised its members in Ikwuano LGA, the home LGA of Senator-elect Col. Akobundu, and across the State to embark on an-unheard-of-march to protest the judgement of a court of competent and final jurisdiction and alerted the security agencies to stop the protest and forestall the breakdown of law and order in the State.
Despite our warnings, we are surprised that the Labour Party did not heed our advice and went ahead with the ill-advised protest which is not only unconscionable but also nonsensical and laughable given that the Court of Appeal would never bow to such a hilarious arm twisting and reverse itself because a bunch of hoodlums threatened to unleash mayhem in the State after a particular judgement did not go in its favour.
The resort to such infantile tactic is very unintelligent and speaks to the calibre of people who populate the Labour Party and the gradual descent of Abia to the most absurd level of indecency under the watch of Alex Otti and the Labour Party.
Unbelievably, the PDP unearthed accurate intelligence which shows that the Abia State government is the mastermind of the exercise which it dubbed the ‘Mother of all Protests’ in Nigeria, after it had budgeted millions of Naira and planned to hire and convey about 6000 protesters and members of the LP using 340 18-seater buses to Umuahia, just to protest the Appeal Court judgement.
Unfortunately for the Labour Party and to its shocking chagrin, the expected turn out was very dismal following the refusal of Ward Chairmen to mobilise the thugs but rather asked Alex Otti to go and bring technocrats and billionaires from the United States, Lagos and Abuja for the demonstration; a reflection of their angst that Alex Otti has sidelined and abandoned the Party faithful that worked for the LP during the election.
The actions of the Labour Party are unbecoming of an organisation that is supposed to function as a political party and a responsible corporate citizen because its State Chairman, Ceekay Igara had also thrown caution to the winds when he addressed a press briefing and assumed the role of an Agent Provocateur and Judge Extraordinaire to reject the judgement and lecture Abians, Nigerians and the Press on why the ruling of a validly constituted court should not stand because a member of his party was removed from office.
According to Igara, “we are more shocked by the rascality of the judiciary, especially muscling judgements, divisive judgement”. This is the first time in the history of our democracy that a political party would take the liberty to abuse members of the esteemed Bench simply because its case fell flat on its face due to irreconcilable differences with provisions of extant laws of Nigeria.
The resort by LP to protests and demonstrations is a new low in their unbridled quest for power and also a call to anarchy and the good people of Abia State would not sit idly by and watch it trample on the rights of others.
Without prejudice to the facts of the matter, the LP displayed and continues to display a high level of shameful ignorance by whipping up sentiments and reducing the judgment of the Appeal Court to only Section 77 of the Electoral Act. Even at that, it refused to realise or tactfully ignored the fact that a Court of Appeal had also ruled that Section 77 which deals with nomination of candidates is both a pre-election and post-elecion matter.
In its mindless and unconscionable resort to blackmail and underhand tactics which have become its stock-in-trade and instruments it uses to get victory through the backdoor, the LP conveniently ignored that fact that the PDP had 19 grounds of appeal, most of which it could not defend and which bother on noncompliance with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the 2022 Electoral Act as Amended.
In the same vein, it brazenly ignored the fact that the Court of Appeal also took cognizance of the rejected votes in some polling units in the Constituency which was in the petition of the PDP.
In its wicked ans frenzied determination to cause commotion in Abia, the LP failed to provide a copy of the judgement to the Press even while making wild claims of reversal in the same breathe.
It is abominable that the Labour Party would stay mute when judgements go in its favour but prefer to bully society with protests whenever a judgement goes against it. Since 1999 when Nigeria returned to democracy and in the 24 years it was in power in Abia State, the PDP never called out its members to protest any judgement that did not favour it, much more disobey a court order.
The Abia PDP has consistently maintained that the Labour Party in Abia under the leadership of Alex Otti portrays itself as a reckless organisation that does not respect the laws of the land and shows a tendency to push Abia into the unsafe and insecure hands of autocrats who would stop at nothing to acquire absolute power which corrupts absolutely and the events of the past days have only validated our position.
We call on the security agencies to bring to justice all the actors in the bizarre and actionable act capable of truncating our democracy, especially operatives of the State government who are not mindful of the fact that the protest against the judiciary is an affront to the concept of separation of powers, one of the strongest safeguards of our democracy against authoritarianism and absolute power in the hands of a few men.
We also call on members of the PDP and the good people of Abia State to remain eternally vigilant because that is the price we have to pay to secure and sustain our liberty from autocrats.
PDP – Power to the People
Signed
Hon. Elder Abraham Amah
Abia PDP Vice Chairman/Acting State Publicity Secretary
