Alleged Election Rigging:…We Have Assembled More Than 18 Lawyers – Secondus

The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Uche
Secondus, on Friday said the party had assembled more than 18
lawyers to go to court to contest the declaration of the
presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, President
Muhammadu Buhari, as the winner of the February 23 presidential
election.

He stated that the party was not under pressure by the National
Peace Committee headed by a former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami
Abubakar (retd), or any other group not to go to court.

He spoke with journalists in Abuja.

He said, “They have been intimidating and freezing the accounts
of our members weeks before the election. Up till now, some people
are being detained and harassed. That is ongoing. We are in a
police state. Right now, the entire country has turned to a police
state. That will not discourage us from going to court. As for
court, we will go to court. We are not fighting. We will go to
court. No pressure whatsoever. We have assembled more than 18
lawyers.”

The Legal Adviser to the PDP, Mr Emmanuel Enoiden, said the
party would unveil the legal team on Saturday. He declined to name
the members of the legal team but said they were among the best
legal brains in the country.

He said, “We are prepared to go to court. We have put together a
legal team that will handle the legal proceedings. We are ready.
PDP is a formidable party so we will go for the best. We won the
election, we were only robbed of the victory and we are ready to
reclaim the victory. If we must reclaim, we know we have to put
together the best legal team, legal minds in the country to do
that.

“We are unveiling the legal team tomorrow. I will not tell you
the members until it is unveiled. I have no powers to mention any
of them. Of course as the legal adviser to the party, I should be
part of the team.”

Secondus said the report of some foreign and local observers
that the elections were credible, free and fair was incorrect.

He stated that the foreign observers might have made such report
to save their lives as he noted that the foreign observers were
threatened that they would return in their body bags by the
Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.

“There is nobody that will stop us from approaching the court,
we will go to court and bring all these things that both the
international observers and others have not seen. We will bring
them to court. I believe that justice will be done at the court. If
we continue to suppress injustice and go sentimental, the country
will begin to pile up gun powder that will explode someday.

“There is so much injustice. If you allow it and it continues to
pile, nobody knows what will happen. So that is why we decided that
as good citizens and law-abiding people who believe in the rule of
law, we will go to court. We are not going to depend on the
comments of the observers that were threatened.

“They were threatened and so what do you expect them to say?
They have to go home with their lives. So they were threatened and
silenced, they cannot talk. So, it is our responsibility as good
citizens to bring this to the public and to go to the court, so we
are going to court.”

He also said the party would study INEC proposal for
supplementary elections and take appropriate decision.

He also said the party would contest the declaration of the
Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, as the winner of the Orlu
Senatorial district election. He alleged that the governor and his
agents forced the returning officer to announce Okorocha as the
winner of the election.