TheCable

The All Progressives Congress (APC) says Atiku Abubakar is trying to “deflect the shame of a highly probable defeat” in the presidential electoral tribunal by making “mischievous allegations”.

In a statement on Saturday signed by Felix Morka, APC spokesperson, the ruling party responded to Abubakar’s accusation of judicial intimidation to swing the court judgement on the presidential election.

Earlier, Paul Ibe, media adviser to Abubakar, presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), had accused APC and agents of President Bola Tinubu of having “ceaselessly chosen to stand in the way of justice by making “catastrophic threats to anarchy if justice is not served according to their whims”.

In a statement, Ibe alleged that APC was plotting to intimidate the judiciary by harassing the judges involved in the petition and called on the international community to be alerted.

“The plot of the APC is simple: intimidate the judiciary, threaten judges with arrest so that they will bow to their will. This is a playbook from 2019 when they removed the CJN and then replaced him with Tanko Muhammad, who himself was later accused of corruption by his colleagues at the supreme court and resigned shamefully,” the statement read.

In response, APC described the PDP candidate’s allegations as “arrant nonsense totally lacking in substance and cogency”.

The ruling party said the opposition candidate “miserably failed” to establish his case in court and only employed a “childish attempt” to save face.

“Our attention has been drawn to a press statement by a media aide to Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The statement alleges that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its government are engaged in a plot to intimidate members of the judiciary towards unduly influencing the outcome of pending cases before the court,” the statement reads.

“Atiku Abubakar and his minions offered no evidence to support their wild, hollow, and mischievous allegations. Quite frankly, there is nothing in Atiku Abubakar’s statement that is worth a reaction from the APC.

“It is just arrant nonsense, totally lacking in substance and cogency. Its only imaginable purpose is a childish attempt to float an alibi to deflect the shame of a highly probable defeat in court, having miserably failed to make out a credible case to justify his bogus claim that he won the last presidential election.

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and our party won the election convincingly. We have full faith and confidence in our courts to dispense electoral justice in accordance with our constitution and all applicable laws.”