The Akwa Ibom State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Obong Paul Ekpo, has cautioned the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State to desist from making statements that cast aspersion on the nation’s judiciary and bring it into disrepute, noting that the judiciary remained the last hope of the common man.
Obong Ekpo was reacting to a statement credited to the Akwa Ibom State Chairman of the APC, Dr Amadu Attai, which had severely criticised the Chairman and members of the Akwa Ibom State National and State Assembly Election Tribunal over the upholding of the election of Senator Godswill Akpabio.
In a statement in Uyo, the PDP Chairman said the outburst of the Akwa Ibom State Chairman of the APC followed the same pattern of the defeated candidate of the Party, Mr Umana Okon Umana, who had also taken to Twitter shortly after judgement was delivered to question the integrity of the judiciary.
Obong Ekpo said the position taken by the APC has shown a clear disdain of the party towards the country’s judiciary warning that it was wrong for the APC to ride rough shods on Judges who cannot defend themselves in the media. He warned that the Judiciary as an important arm of the government must not be ridiculed because of the inordinate ambition of some members of the APC.
According to Obong Ekpo, “we strongly condemn this tactics by the APC in seeking to intimidate and cow the judiciary over the victory of Senator Akpabio by throwing around spurious, unfounded and baseless allegations against the judiciary. We want to warn these anti-democratic elements to desist from this path of destruction of national institutions,” he said.
The PDP Chief called on the APC to learn to accept defeat in good faith, noting that the voice of the people of Akwa Ibom State had resonated loudly enough during the last general elections that they belonged to the PDP but ” Attai and his band of anarchists were deaf to the voice such that they needed the Tribunal to confirm the Peoples Mandate,” he said.
The Chairman called on appropriere Security agencies and judicial organs to apply necessary sanctions to Dr Attai and Mr Umana for the contemptuous manner they had denigrated the judiciary “unless they can provide proofs to back up their baseless claims.”
Obong Ekpo also lambasted the APC and “a few spineless individuals” over the attempt to rubbish the unprecedented achievement recorded by the PDP administration under Chief Godswill Akpabio for eight years by writing frivolous petitions to anti-graft agencies about the former Governor, maintaining that Chief Akpabio will be vindicated.
The PDP Chief who noted that he would not join issues with the APC Chairman over his unreasonable attack of the former Governor on spurious And baseless allegations maintained that Chief Akpabio is a law-abiding citizen and had demonstrated that by honouring the invitation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), adding that it will soon become clear that the allegations were without substance.
