The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Federal Government of shopping for what it described as a fraudulent interim court order to declare vacant the seat of the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu following Saraki’s defection from the APC to the PDP.
Two APC Senators – Abu Ibrahim (Katsina) and Abdullahi Adamu (Adamawa) warned Saraki on Friday to resign or face the consequences of not doing so.
The PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said credible information at its disposal showed that “some cabals in the Presidency and APC had perfected a plan to institute a lawsuit to challenge the validity of Saraki’s seat with the sole aim of securing a fraudulent injunction to force him out of office pending the determination of the substantive suit.”
The statement said: “Further intelligence available to us shows that once they are able to secure the injunction from a particular compromised judicial officer, they intend to arraign and detain the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, on trumped up charges and ensure he is not granted bail so as to keep him out of circulation while their men would move in to effect an illegal leadership change in the Senate.
“While we trust that the Chief Justice of Nigeria will protect the sanctity of our judiciary especially at this trying time in our national history, we call on the institution of the judiciary at all levels to immune itself from being used by enemies of our democracy as no house falls leaving its roof standing.
“This desperation by despotic forces to forcefully and illegally take control of the Senate, the highest symbol of our Democratic Order, is nothing short of “civilianised coup” which must be resisted by all.
“The judiciary must therefore ensure that it is not intimidated or ensnared to be party to a desperate bid to destabilize our nation.
“The PDP holds that this newest devilish plot to destabilise our democracy lays credence to our earlier stand that President Buhari’s supposed London vacation is a ploy to absolve himself of responsibility for the political terror they have plotted to unleash on the opposition, especially the National Assembly.
“Although they denied it as usual, Nigerians can bear witness to the fact that there is nothing the APC government denied that they did not eventually execute. Indeed, there has never been any impunity they executed that they did not deny.
“The recent rascally attempt to hold Saraki and Ekweremadu hostage in their homes on 24th July 2018 as well as the terrorisation of the Benue State House of Assembly after Governor Samuel Ortom’s defection bear sad testimony to this fact.
“We, therefore, call on Nigerians and the international community to be on the alert as the conspirators plan to commence the execution of this evil plot from Tuesday next week.
“Finally, the PDP cautions the APC and others in this evil ring to note that they are now running on a collision course with Nigerians as the citizens will definitely not fold their hands and watch them destroy our hard earned democracy and foist fascism on our dear nation.”