The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Saturday vehemently insisted that the Supreme Court has no option than to dismiss the pending application by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to review its judgment on the Zamfara Governorship election matter.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, stated this as the firm position of the party after a crucial meeting with critical stakeholders from Zamfara state, in Abuja, on Saturday.
Ologbondiyan said the PDP stands by its earlier statement in which it raised alarms that the APC was behind the insupportable agitation that the Supreme Court should reserve its judgment on the Zamfara state governorship election matter.
He asserted that the APC ploy is to arm-twist the apex court to review the case contrary to the already affirmed finality of the Supreme Court judgments as firmly established in the court’s judgment on Imo and Bayelsa election matters.
“The PDP is aware of the efforts being made by agents of the APC to blackmail and arm-twist the Supreme Court to commit a judicial summersault and give them judgment through the back door.
“But our party, the generality of Nigerians and in fact the justices of the Supreme Court know that the court has no option before it than to dismiss the application. This is because the Supreme Court had consistently decided on the finality of judgments reached at the court, which it reaffirmed in its judgments on the Bayelsa and Imo state governorship elections, where the apex court dismissed the applications for review on the ground that it lacked jurisdiction to review its own judgment.
“So the inevitable fate of the APC application on Zamfara is to be dismissed. It cannot have any life before the Supreme Court. That is why the Supreme Court had no business in the first place reserving judgment on the matter. In fact, all issues bothering on review were never reserved for judgment but dismissed because of Supreme Court’s belief in the finality and infallibility of its own judgment.
“Our position is that the Supreme Court should resist the APC and abide by its own verdict of not reviewing any judgment already delivered by it”, he said.
Ologbondiyan noted that the PDP is resolute in its position and cautioned that anything short of adhering to the already established finality of the Supreme Court, “is capable of triggering a breakdown of law and other in Zamfara state, destabilize our nation and truncate our hard earned democracy”.
It would be recalled that there have been public apprehensions since the Supreme Court reserved its judgment on the Zamfara review application, even when it had already held in the Imo and Bayelsa matters that it lacked jurisdiction to review its own judgment.
The PDP had accused the APC of being behind the decision to reserve judgment on Zamfara application, alleging that such was a ploy by the party to arm-twist the Supreme Court to illegally award the state governorship to it.