The All Progressives Congress (APC) this morning strongly warned the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) not to go ahead with its alleged plan to declare vacant the seats of the five PDP Governors who recently defected to the APC.

The governors are Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara) and Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers).

In a statement issued in Abuja by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC said apart from being illegal and smacking of double standard, declaring the seats of the affected governors vacant has the potential to plunge the polity into chaos.

Said Lai Mohammed: “We have irrefutable evidence that the PDP is desperately shopping for a pliant Judge who will be heavily induced to declare vacant the seats of the five Governors who recently defected to the APC. We also have the name of the lawyers who have been retained by the PDP for this hatchet job.

“We are in possession of the various nefarious legal options being explored by the villainous duo of the PDP and the Presidency but we hereby serve a strong notice to the duo that any attempt by anyone through any means other than what is provided for in section 188 of the 1999 Constitution as amended will not only have grave consequences but will leave the polity severely bruised.

“We know the PDP and the Presidency are anarchic and nihilistic, and will not mind to pursue any narrow and selfish objective, even if doing such can plunge the nation into crisis. But their cup is gradually getting full. Having got away with their trademark impunity in Delta and Anambra states, these lawless, reckless and feckless duo of malfeasance now believe they can continue to act without regards to the laws of the land and with no scintilla of decency.

“We wish to state unequivocally that should the PDP go ahead with this plan, there will be widespread repercussions as the APC has resolved that henceforth, every act of impunity of the PDP and the Presidency will be met with stiff resistance in the form of a vociferous telegraphing of people power, the likes of which have not been witnessed in these parts.”

APC told the PDP and the Presidency that “a party that boasts of 16 Governors....still counting...and has control of the National Assembly has what it takes to use people power to stop acts of impunity, disregard for the laws of the land and barbaric brigandage – and that is exactly what the APC will do in the event of any unlawful declaration of the five Governors’ seats vacant.”

The party also warned against any attempt by the PDP and the Presidency “to turn back the hands of the clock as far as the cleaning up of the judiciary is concerned, by inducing a servile and disreputable Judge to do the duo’s bidding.”

“We recognise the efforts of the present CJN to sanitise the Judiciary since she assumed the mantle of leadership but she should not allow any black leg to reverse the gains that have been recorded on the altar of unmitigated avarice. This is because if that happens, Nigerians will hold the Judiciary vicariously liable for the catastrophic consequences that may follow,” PC said.

Accusing the PDP of engaging in double standard, APC said: “For all of 14 years, elected members of the State Houses of Assembly as well as the National Assembly have been defecting mostly to the PDP and no court has ever declared their seats vacant.

“Late Senator Wahab Dosunmu and Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, then of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), blazed the trail when they decamped to the PDP within a year of their election. Since then scores of elected lawmakers at state and federal levels have defected to the PDP without any eyebrows being raised or anyone declaring their seats vacant.

“When Governors Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State and Theodore Orji of Abia State, both elected on the platform of the PPA, and Governor Isah Yuguda of Bauchi State, who was elected on the platform of the ANPP, defected to the PDP, nobody declared their seats vacant.

“As a matter of fact, the PDP under late President Umar Yar’Adua organised an elaborate reception to welcome Gov. Yuguda to the PDP. Why then should the case of the five PDP Governors (still counting) who have joined the APC be different? Why is the PDP suddenly afraid of taking the same medicine it has been administering to others? Does it mean that all the bravado that has been displayed by the PDP, which says it is not bothered by the defection of the five Governors, is just a facade to hide its deep pain at the monumental loss?”

The party also asked the PDP and the Presidency, if they can allow a rare moment of introspection, to go and read – and be guided by – the ruling of the Supreme Court after the PDP attempted to make then Vice President Atiku Abubakar to lose his seat and to also strip him of his privileges following his defection to the ACN.

•Photo shows Lai Mohammed.

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