Posted on: 01:30 Sun, 08 Nov 2015



The opposition Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) has cried out and
vehemently rejected the dismissal of the
Governor of Taraba State, Darius
Ishaku, by the State Governorship
Election Petitions Tribunal.

PDP accused the presidency of
manipulating the judiciary against it
and claimed that the court’s decision
was another proof of executive
interference by the APC government
in judicial matters.

PDP and the sacked governor has a
lot to say about the judgement…

Ishaku himself dismissed the
tribunal’s verdict as totally
unacceptable even as some residents
of Jalingo openly celebrated after
news of the development filtered in
from Abuja where it was delivered.

APC National Woman Leader, Hajiya
Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, hailed the
ruling as victory for democracy.

The tribunal had proclaimed Hajia
Aisha Jummai Alhassan, the APC
candidate in the election, as winner.

It said Ishaku was not properly
nominated by PDP and therefore was
not qualified to contest the election.

According to The Nation report,
Ishaku is the third PDP governor
after Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom
and Nyesom Wike of Rivers to lose at
election tribunal after the April
elections.

The PDP had earlier blamed the
federal government, the judiciary
and INEC for its woes.

Reacting to the verdict, PDP said the
reason given by the tribunal for
arriving at the decision was
intriguing and only exposed what it
dubbed contradictions and double
standards inherent in most tribunal
rulings against its interests as well as
organized plan to deploy all
unorthodox means to decimate them.

“Evidence that Taraba ruling was a
product of presidency manipulation
can be deduced from the fact that
few hours before the judgment was
delivered, the APC had arrogantly
announced their victory on the new
media,” PDP National Publicity
Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh said in
a statement.

He also faulted the premise on which
the tribunal based its decision,
saying: “it is rather curious and a
great conflict of irony that the
Taraba tribunal sitting in Abuja on
security grounds faulted the conduct
of PDP primaries shifted to the same
Abuja on security reasons.”

The party argued that if the tribunal
faulted PDP primaries, it then means
that no APC gubernatorial candidate
can stand the test because, according
to him, the APC never had acceptable
primaries in any of the states it won.

He said: “the PDP wants democracy
watchers globally to recall that it had
earlier alerted the nation and the
international community to the
grand design by the APC to use the
judiciary to wrestle some PDP states,
particularly Rivers, Akwa Ibom and
Taraba states.

He said the PDP is totally
confounded by what he called the
brazing show of power by the
executive and warned that the
development clearly portends grave
danger to democracy and indeed
national cohesion and development.

In Jalingo, the Taraba State capital,
Mr. Ishaku dismissed the tribunal’s
verdict that voided his election as
totally unacceptable.

“This is totally unacceptable. I have
told my legal counsel to proceed to
the Court of Appeal immediately.”

He said, “I’m going to appeal the
judgment. So I want the people of
Taraba to remain calm. It is the
mandate that they overwhelmingly
gave me that I am serving the state.
We shall do everything possible
within the ambit of the law to see
that their will is not thwarted.”

But APC’s Hajiya Aliyu said the will
of the people freely expressed
through the ballot cannot be
upturned at the whims and caprices
of a few individuals.

The ruling, according to her “is a
clear affirmation that no matter how
long it takes, never will the verdict of
the people during elections be
manipulated against their popular
choice as expressed through the
ballot box. Indeed, by the ruling, it
has been proven that in a true
democracy, sovereignty ultimately
resides with the inviolable will of the
people.”

She commended the judiciary for its
“boldness and unfettered
commitment to the sacred principles
of honour, good conscience and the
truth. Indeed, it has shown that its
role as the defender of the
defenceless in a democracy remains
strong and sacred.”

She asked Nigerian women to “rally
support for the Tribunal’s ruling,
especially in the circumstance that it
remains a priceless watershed in our
political history for our great Part to
produce the first elected female
Governor in Nigeria as desired and
manifestly expressed by the
electorate in Taraba State.”

Soon after news of the tribunal’s
verdict reached Jalingo, residents of
Agwan Gaadi, Barde way, Wuro-
Sambo and Angwani areas took to
the streets in jubilation.

APC supporters were seen jubilating
and shouting “APC!, Sai Baba!!