Lagos State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has accused the All Progressives congress of intimidating petitioners inside and outside the courtroom.
The party also raised the alarm over alleged move by the APC National Legal Adviser, Mr. Muiz Banire, to influence the rulings of the elections petition tribunal.
The state PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr. Taofik Gani, in a statement accused Banire of engaging in frivolous and vexatious judicial processes to intimidate PDP candidates who are before the tribunals.
The statement read
“The PDP has consequently vowed to resist such further harassment inside and outside the courtrooms, just as it is prepared to appeal any miscarriage of justice at the tribunals, and such selected petitions are slated for ruling this week.
“For some time, we have kept quiet and ignored the deliberate antics, manipulations and forms of intimidation employed by the APC legal teams at the various tribunals in the state. They so parade themselves to overwhelm the panel of tribunals. Indeed, Banire, who is a chieftain of the APC and also appears at the tribunals as a counsel is notorious for this act.
“Recently, and in furtherance of his attempt to intimidate our candidates and perhaps frustrate our petitions, he filed contempt committal proceedings against our Lagos West senatorial candidate, Segun Adewale.
“The matter brought in suit with number NA/LEGH/EPT/LS/8/2015, is to us a deliberate action to arrest, intimidate and or silence our candidate pending the outcome of the ruling already fixed for this week.
“We have endured enough and now we want the APC and their lawyer to desist from further attempts to intimidate our petitioners. We want justice and that is why we approached the tribunals. We strongly hope and expect that the tribunals should not adopt any procedure that is not expressly provided for in the electoral act or any other laws to shut us out to the streets.”
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