Amid ongoing public backlash that has greeted the recent remarks by Muhammadu Buhari explaining why opposition parties lost to the ruling All Progressives Congress in the February 25 election, a prominent chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dele Momodu has come out to accuse the President of attempting to influence the judiciary before the commencement of court hearings on election petition…..CONTINUE READING...CONTINUE READING
Recall that in an official statement released by his Senior Special Adviser on Media Publicity on Thursday, Buhari stated that opposition candidates lost to the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu because they were overconfident and complacent at the same time.
However, while appearing in an interview on ARISE TV’s ‘The Morning Show’ on Saturday, Momodu, who is a spokesman for the PDP candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, faulted Buhari for making such a statement while the result of the polls was still being contested in court.
According to him, such comments from the office of the President were capable of influencing the judiciary into making a pre-determined judgment on the petitions filed before it.
He said; “I disagree with his use of words. You cannot say a man lost an election when he is still contesting it. The end will ultimately determine whether he lost or won. So, when you he lost, that is rather too emphatic, especially when the matter is still in court. As law-abiding citizens, we should allow the court to determine who won and lost the election.
Yes, INEC has declared someone the winner, and that’s okay for now. But we must respect the judiciary to complete its work without anybody, including the President trying to stampede or influence it into making a predetermined judgment.
So, when the President said opposition candidates lost because of one reason or the other, I see it as a deliberate attempt to stampede someone somewhere into knowing where he stands and that shouldn’t be the case…..CONTINUE READING
