Governors elected on the platform of the People’s Democratic (PDP) have backed the decision of the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abuabakar, to challenge the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari at the Supreme Court.
The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal had on Wednesday, upheld Buhari’s election, dismissing Atiku’s petition against Buhari’s victory in the February 23 presidential election.
Dissatisfied with the tribunal’s verdict, Atiku and the PDP had hinted of their decision to challenge the judgment at the Supreme Court.
The party’s governors, under the aegis of the PDP Governors’ Forum, said the tribunal stood justice on its head and if not challenged at the apex court, may constitute a clog in the wheel of development of the nation’s democracy.
The governors, in a statement issued on Sunday and signed by the forum’s chairman, Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, added that aside sending wrong signals to the youths, the tribunal’s judgment attempted to lay a faulty moral foundation for generations yet unborn.
The statement said, “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.
Stating that Nigerians are very hopeful that the “wrongs” will be righted by the apex court, stressing that, “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.”
