Youths of the All Progressives Congress(APC) have prostested the judgments of the National/state house of assembly election petition tribunal 11 in Akwa Ibom state.
The youths numbering over 5,000, who stormed the state secretariat of the party on Tuesday along Ikot Ekpene road Uyo, expressed dissatisfaction at the judgments delivered so far by the tribunal chairman, Justice Jennifer Ijohor.
Addressing a press conference on the sidelines of the protest,the Akwa Ibom state APC youth leader, Comrade Stephen Ntukekpo described the judgments as ‘lopsided, biased and inconsequential’.
Though we utterly frown at the lopsided, biased and inconsequential judgment delivered by Justice Ijohor on the four of the cases brought before her tribunal, we are, however, not surprised since we had earlier perceived and in fact posited clearly a number of parameters which were carefully crafted by the PDP to handcuff justice in connivance with His Lordship.
Firstly, we knew the political peculiarity of our dear state and the possibility of some of the judges being compromised due to pressure from those who are all out to subvert the voice of justice. Of course, it’s no longer news that their manipulative machinations have screwed the judgments so far delivered.
Secondly, at the initial stage of the tribunal, we alarmed of Justice Jennifer Ijohor’s connivance and intimacy with the PDP, a judge whose husband is the current Secretary to the Government of Benue State”, he said.
The state party’s youth leader also noted that, Justice Jennifer Ijohor’s actions against the APC and the generality of Akwa Ibom people is a bold attempt at rendering the President Muhammadu Buhari’s committed fight against corruption counter-productive”.
Ntukekpo also warned governors of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) to desist from opposing recent appointments made by the federal government.
It could be recalled that PDP governors had criticized appointments made by President Muhammadu Buhari into the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC), adding that they were not consulted for their inputs.
While thanking President Buhari for appointing Senator Godswill Akpabio as Minister and Mr. Victor Antai and others into the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC), Ntukekpo said that governors of the opposition party do not have any constitutional right to dictate to President Buhari who he should give appointments to,.
He added that former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Late Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan did not allow the opposition parties to decide who they should appoint into their cabinets.