Abia PDP berates LP for protesting against Appeal Court ruling

From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia

Abia State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has berated the ruling Labour Party (LP) for staging a demonstration against the Appeal Court judgement that sacked Senator Darlington Nwokocha.

Nwkocha, the candidate of LP, in the February 25 National Assembly Election for Abia Central Senatorial election, was returned elected by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

But his PDP opponent, Col. Austin Akobundu, challenged his victory at the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, on the grounds of improper nomination and electoral malpractices.

The lower court dismissed Akobundu’s petition for lack of merit last September.

Akobundu proceeded to the Appeal Court which upheld his appeal and sacked Nwokocha.

The Appeal Court ruling irked Abia LP which view the judgement as a miscarriage of justice. The party vehemently rejected the judgement and took to the streets, insisting that Nwokocha still remained the Senator for Abia Central Senatorial zone.

Reacting to the LP protest which rocked Umuahia, the Abia State capital, on Monday, November 6, 2023, Abia PDP, rising from its State Executive Council meeting on Tuesday, said it “condemns without reservation, the irresponsible demonstration by members of the Labour Party and agents of the Abia State government led by the Deputy Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly, Augustine Nmeregini, in Umuahia, yesterday, following the Court of Appeal ruling on the Abia Central Senatorial election which removed Darlington Nwokeocha of the Labour Party and restored the mandate of Col. Austin Akobundu of the PDP.”

Abia PDP, in a prepared speech read to newsmen by its Vice Chairman for Abia North, Elder Abraham Amah, who is also the Acting Publicity Secretary of the party, said it had 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. 

PDP said LP did not heed its advice to call off such plan, adding: “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,” PDP quipped. 

The PDP further alleged that it has credible evidence that the state government masterminded the LP demonstration tagged “Mother of sll protests.”

“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 main opposition party further alleged.

PDP decried the actions of the Labour Party as “unbecoming of an organisation that is supposed to function as a political party and a responsible corporate citizen,” stressing that “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.”

While warning that Abians could not fold their hands and watch the ruling party, PDP said: “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.”

Since LP insisted that Akobundu’s appeal was predicated on Section 77 of the Electoral Act, Abia PDP reminded it that a Court of Appeal had also ruled that Section 77 which deals with nomination of candidates was 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 the fact that the PDP had 19 grounds of appeal, most of which it could not defend and which border on non-compliance with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the 2022 Electoral Act as Amended,” PDP contended.

“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,” the Abia PDP State Executive Council added.

It accused LP of “staying mute when judgements go in its favour but prefer to bully society with protests whenever a judgement goes against it,” denying that it (PDP) ever indulged in such behaviour  for the 24 years it was in power in Abia State.

The opposition party therefore called on 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,” Amah said.

Addressing the gathering, the Deputy Chairman of Abia PDP, Chief Obinna Nwachukwu, said the turn out by members of the state executive of the party was an indication that the party was still intact.