Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Friday raised the alarm over the attempt by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to delay release of the record of its judgment to enable the party and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to promptly file an appeal to upturn the judgment at the Supreme Court.
In a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, the party said: “Our party and millions of supporters across the country believe that the delay is a calculated attempt by some quarters to frustrate our appeal at the Supreme Court, where Nigerians have expressed confidence to get justice as well as restore the integrity of our judiciary, which has been eroded by the Tribunal.”
“It was instructive to state that the Court of Appeal was aware that the PDP and its candidate have mandatory 14 days to appeal to the Supreme Court, yet it was delaying in releasing a judgment that was read for nine hours and which it wants the public to believe it actually wrote.
“Our party fears that this development is lending credence to suspicion in the public space that the judgment is being tampered with and altered, in the name of correcting errors, knowing that there is no way the verdicts can stand the scrutiny of the Supreme Court.
“We also hope there is no link between the circumstances surrounding this delay and the boasts by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, speaking for the Buhari Presidency, as well as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, that justice will not be served to the PDP and our Presidential candidate at the Supreme Court”.
It said that the PDP had always alerted Nigerians to he relentless efforts by the APC to manipulate processes, adding, “we are happy that our party and Nigerians in general, have the full video and audio recording of the judgment and we will not hesitate to expose any underhand act by anybody”.
The PDP therefore demanded the immediate release of the record of judgment as delivered by the Tribunal without any form of alterations.