The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in a swift response to PDP statement accused the main opposition party of intimidating the Supreme Court and undermining the judiciary.
The APC said the PDP statement was criminal and irresponsible of a party that had once run the country for an uninterrupted period of 16 years.
Further, the ruling party said for the PDP to be voted out of power for maladministration should not make it seek to bring the country down by taking actions or making statements that are targeted at undermining a critical state institution like the judiciary.
National Spokesman of the party, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, said this in a statement in Abuja.
He added that the PDP has unfortunately come to be known for deploying blackmail and intimidation of state institutions as a strategy to circumvent or derail processes and procedures that are at variance with any of its inordinate interests.
The party even pointed out that the PDP had, unfortunately, failed woefully on the Zamfara matter.
Also, it reiterated that the PDP is not in any way a party to its intra-party matter before the Supreme Court.
APC said, “There is a world of difference between the Supreme Court review sought on the Zamfara matter and the matters that the Supreme Court dismissed regarding Imo and Bayelsa states.
“Unlike what happened in Bayelsa and Imo, in Zamfara, the Supreme Court is not being requested to review its decision.
“Far from it. The unique thing about Zamfara’s case at the Supreme Court is that the APC is not attacking the judgement of their Lordships but only praying that they vary their consequential order for the purpose of justice.
“That is where the PDP, who not being a party in the matter, is scared as it found itself to have immensely benefitted from our intra-party squabbles, by reaping where they never sowed.
“The Supreme Court had earlier affirmed that it has the powers to review its own decisions and that it is not averse to correcting error when that is noticed or when it is brought to its attention”.
The APC also recalled, “While delivering the landmark lead judgment, Chukwudifu Oputa JSC in Adegoke Motors Vs Adesanya considered the powers of the Supreme Court (as the final court in the land) to review its earlier decisions and said:
“We are final not because we are infallible; rather we are infallible because we are final. Justices of this court are human beings, capable of erring.
“It will certainly be shortsighted arrogance not to accept this obvious truth. It is also true that this court can do inestimable good through its wise decisions.
“Similarly, the court can do incalculable harm through its mistakes. When therefore it appears to learned counsel that any decision of this court has been given per incuriam, such counsel should have the boldness and courage to ask that such a decision be over-ruled.
“This court has the power to overrule itself (and has done so in the past) for it gladly accepts that it is far better to admit an error than to persevere in error”
It, however, called on the Supreme Court to focus on dispensing justice in the case of Zamfara state as well as other matters before it and ignore the alleged irresponsible ranting of the PDP.
