Nigeria’s largest opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has passed a vote of no confidence on the country’s Supreme Court and asked Chief Justice Tanko Mohammed to immediately resign for being what it alleged to be apex court operating as stooge of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
The PDP also wanted the judgment that sacked its Emeka Ihedioha as Governor of Imo State in the east of the country to be reviewed and reversed.
“With the verdict, the Supreme Court executed a coup against the PDP and the people of Imo state as well as other Nigerians, and such must not be allowed to have a place in our democracy,” National Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus said at a press briefing in the Nigerian capital city of Abuja on Thursday.
Secondus called on the judiciary to be careful not to throw the country into chaos following its judgment on Tuesday that sacked Ihedioha as Governor of Imo State.
The PDP therefore advises Justice Tanko not to allow himself to be used to push our nation to the path of anarchy and constitutional crisis as any further attempt to subvert justice in the pending petitions on Sokoto, Bauchi, Benue, Adamawa as well as Kano and Plateau states will be firmly and vehemently resisted.
“In other to avoid an imminent breakdown of law and order, the PDP demands that Justice Tanko Mohammed immediately steps down as CJN and chairman of the National Judicial Council as Nigerians have lost confidence in him and a Supreme Court under his leadership,” the opposition party chairman said.
The Supreme Court had on Tuesday sacked Ihedioha of the PDP as Imo state governor and announced the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate Hope Uzodinma as winner of the governorship election held in March 2019.
Uzodinma was then given a new certificate of return by the electoral commission, INEC and was sworn in late Wednesday.
The opposition party also demanded that Chief Justice Mohammed immediately recuse himself from the remaining governorship election cases before the Supreme Court to avoid him influencing other judges.
Secondus said “Justice Tanko must not head the panel to determine the remaining election petitions before the Supreme Court” which include Kano, Plateau, Benue, Bauchi and Adamawa states which are mostly states governed by the opposition party.
The Supreme Court and Chief Justice Mohammed were not immediately available for comments, according to media report.
