APC group denies tension report over Appeal Court judgment in Plateau

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Strategic Monitoring Team (SMT) says that there was no tension in Plateau over judgments delivered recently by the Court of Appeal.

Coordinator of APC-SMT Mr Golepji Wambutda who briefed newsmen on Saturday in Jos, said that the purported tension existed only in the imagination of a political party that lost the appeals.

Wambutda said that the claim of tension was fabricated by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) whose National Assembly members lost their seats at the appeal tribunal.

The coordinator stated that the PDP adopted ethnic division, religion, and cheap unsubstantiated blackmail of the person of the President of the Court of Appeal and Justices of the same court.

“This incitement is far-reaching as it seeks to rubbish all the courts have ever decided and are still deciding according to law and precedent.

“The drums of war, tension and restiveness claimed to exist on the Plateau is a creation of the PDP which it is likely to instigate by ensuring violence follows the outcome of appeals, should it not go its way.

“This we believe will not happen as a responsible leadership and trustee of the people whom it currently is, may only discredit itself. But can we measure the desperation and how far it can cause them to go?

“We state clearly that there is no threat to peace. The people have returned to their daily lives of striving to survive. Businesses are operating normally without anxiety.

“We wish to reiterate to all peace-loving citizens of Plateau at home and in the diaspora that there is no tension,’’ he reemphasized.

He stated that it was pertinent that they in the APC do not sit down and watch in silence while they heat the system and cause fear among the citizenry who have since returned to the hitherto ordinary lives of struggling while the economic hardship bites.

The coordinator stated their briefing became necessary to correct wrong narratives by PDP and their sympathizers.

According to him, a pro-PDP group known as Forum of Former Youth Leaders (Veterans), in Plateau on Monday urged the Supreme Court and the National Judicial Council (NJC) to wade into the legal precedence against the legislators in the state.

The group, he said claimed that the judgments have created uncertainties, fears, doubts and apprehension in the state’s political landscape.

Wambutda stated that the claim by the group was far from the truth as the majority of Plateau people were celebrating the outcome of the appeals.

The judgments had generated debates, accusations and counteraccusations by the interested parties.

It would be recalled the national secretariat of PDP on Wednesday, called for the disbandment of the appeal tribunal panel handling Plateau cases over what it described judicial threat to democracy.

The call was made by the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Mr Debo Ologunagba for alleged bias judgments targeted at robbing the PDP of its hard-fought victories.

In a swift reaction, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Mr Felix Morka on Friday described PDP as “a sore loser and manifestly hypocritical”.

Morka said “PDP has consistently queried every court judgment against it while profusely celebrating cases that it has won even in very opaque circumstances,”

The national publicity secretary urged the judiciary not to bow to intimidation and blackmail of the PDP and to continue to uphold the principles of law and justice at all times in line with its constitutional duty and integrity.