[FILE]PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus during the protest in Abuja… yesterday PHOTO: LUCY LADIDI ELUKPO
No, It’s Face-saving Measure Minister
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council has suspended its presidential campaign in protest of President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to suspend the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen.
The PDP Campaign Council further predicated the suspension on solidarity with Nigerians “in our collective rejection of the assault against our democratic order.”
A statement by the National chairman of PDP, Uche Secondus, yesterday, described President Buhari’s action as a “dangerous and brazen assault on the constitution.” The PDP Campaign Council said there was no point in campaigning to contest in an election, whose very basis has been so flagrantly undermined.
The PDP Presidential Campaign was scheduled to hold in Benue State, yesterrday. But it now said it is suspending its campaign activities for a period of 72 hours in the first instance.
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The party said: “It is our hope that President Buhari will listen to the voice of all lovers of democracy the world over and restore democracy in Nigeria immediately and without qualifications.
At the moment, the President has effectively suspended the constitution under whose basis the elections are being contested. The action of President Buhari represents a constitutional breach and a direct attack on our democracy. This must never be allowed to stand, as there is no way by which democracy can survive under these autocratic tendencies…”
But in a reaction, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has described the decision by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to pull the brakes on its electioneering campaign over Justice Walter Onnoghen’s suspension as a face-saving measure, saying the PDP’s campaign never gained traction in the first instance.
Responding to reporters in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, yesterday, the Minister wondered why PDP was crying more than the bereaved, asking the opposition party whether Justice Onnoghen is one of its members.
On the outcry by some people and organisations over Justice Onnoghen’s suspension, the Minister said it’s troubling that those who are crying foul over the suspension of the CJN have actually ignored the fact that a serving Chief Justice not only amassed millions of dollars in his account, but admitted that he forgot to declare same in his Assets Declaration Form.
