Fayose: APC attacks governor for linking Buhari to tribunal decisions

Fayose made the comment after tribunals in Akwa Ibom and Rivers nullified the April 11, 2015 governorship elections in both states.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State has criticized Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, for accusing President Muhammadu Buhari of interfering with election tribunal judgments in the country.

Fayose made the comment after tribunals in Akwa Ibom and Rivers nullified the April 11, 2015 governorship elections in both states.

The remarks of the Akwa Ibom APC were contained in a statement released on Monday, October 26, by its Publicity Secretary, Engineer Ita Awak.

It reads:

“Contrary to the hypocritical posturing of Fayose, it is the PDP and Senator Godswill Akpabio’s puppet regime in Akwa Ibom that should be accused of unwholesomely meddling in the affairs of the tribunals, judging by all that has played out so far in both the National Assembly and State House of Assembly and the Akwa Ibom State Governorship Election Petition tribunals.”

“No averagely intelligent person can conclude that the judgment handed down by the Justice Sadiq Umar-led panel is in favour of the APC in Akwa Ibom as the party’s prayer was for total annulment of the violent, irregular and unacceptably fraudulent governorship election of April 11, 2015.”

“We have been compelled to make the above assertion for the following reasons: Long before the Akwa Ibom State National Assembly and State House of Assembly Tribunals started reading out their final judgements on petitions brought by APC candidates, high ranking officers of both the Udom interregnum and the PDP had confided in and assured their supporters that the N10 billion loan that Udom hurriedly got weeks ago was for the purpose of “settling” all the election panels for Akwa Ibom State.”

“The PDP chiefs and government officials also assured their aides and followers that because of this uncommon “settlement,” all the tribunals in charge of Akwa Ibom petitions were going to invent reasons to jettison the “card reader” reports so as to justify the fraudulent votes that the INEC officials in Uyo awarded in favour PDP candidates.”

 “In Akpabio’s judgement which Fayose has decided to turn a blind eye, total inflated accreditation on result sheet was 461,702, unsubstantiated accreditation, 256,183 and over voting, 238,986, in addition to the fact that Akpabio was never a PDP candidate for the Akwa Ibom North West senatorial seat. But no one in the PDP uttered a word against the uncommon judgment.”

“We must state clearly that all attempts to blackmail the judiciary by the likes of Fayose and the drowning PDP will fail. It is obvious that Governor Ayodele Fayose’s utterances on the judgment of the Akwa Ibom Governorship Election Tribunal are borne out of ignorance/mischief.”

“We remind Fayose that as one who occupies the office of a governor of a state in Nigeria, he is expected to exhibit excellence in his public utterances.”

READ: Fayose warns Buhari to stop influencing election tribunal judgments

The PDP has vowed to challenge the verdicts of both tribunals.