Unknown to many, Nigeria’s main opposition party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) made several unsuccessful attempts on Monday night to scuttle the re-election of president Buhari using the instrumentality of the law.
Confiance News gathered that an insider revealed to You news, that the emergency meeting of the legal team of the Party was particularly summoned to discuss three options after it was clear to them that president Buhari and his ruling APC party were costing to victory. The PDP bigwigs were convinced of electoral malpractices and would not allow them go unchallenged.
One of the options discussed, which we learnt and a follow up to one Of Dubai strategy was how to procure judgement to stop further announcement of the presidential election results in a move similar to the annulment of the 1993 June 12, election.
The two other options were to challenge the election in court, and lastly to reject the entire outcome of the exercise and call for mass protest. But the mass protest idea was quickly jettisoned as a result of the peace agreement earlier signed.
The source revealed further that the attendees of the meeting eventually settled for court action to stop further announcement and the rejection of the result through a press conference.
The main problem according to the source was who to approach and the time frame .
”They wanted a southerner or northerner who could help but they could not find anyone without the plan leaking out. Eventually, they settled for two judges, one in Anambra and the other in Port Harcourt.
The source further said that two of the party lawyers were mandated to scout for friendly judges in Anambra and port Harcourt. The exercise was to be coordinated by Kabir Turaki, a former minister of special duties who unsuccessfully sought the presidential ticket of the PDP for the 2019 election .
Unfortunately, the source said the two judges refused the offer citing time frame and that they were not willing to be used to plunge the country into crisis that could truncate Nigeria’s democratic process.
“Had any of the judges been willing to assist, Nigerians would have woken up on Wednesday to a big shock, a repeat of the June 12 annulment,” he said
“The Tuesday’s press conference where the party rejected the election result was a delay tactic while the lawyers scout for friendly judges,” the source said.
Meanwhile, the party petitioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Tuesday, asking for a halt of the national collation of results.
The party wanted the collation to wait until data from the smart card reader accreditation at the polling units are made available to all the parties in the election.
The party said INEC should release the data immediately, in line with INEC’s avowed commitment to a transparent, free and fair election.
The party’s position was conveyed in a statement by Barr. Tanimu Turaki SAN, Deputy Director General (Adm), PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation.
(You News)
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