TRIBUNAL: Abe faults PDP on conduct of security agencies

                               
Senator Magnus Abe has absolved the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Rivers State over alleged use of security agencies to their advantage at the election petitions tribunal sitting in Abuja.

He described the allegation as a cheap attempt to mislead Nigerians.

In a statement,  yesterday,  Abe urged President Muhammadu Buhari to disregard an earlier petition by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state on the matter.

Abe stated that the petition was “Calculated to ridicule and paint in bad light, the highly revered institution of the Nigerian Army and the officer of the Director-General of the Department of State Security, DSS.”

He said: “For the record, it is pertinent to clearly state that what transpired at the tribunal was that the tribunal, at the request of the petitioners (myself and other petitioners) issued a subpoena directed at the Chief of Army Staff (or any of his designated officers) to appear before the tribunal and give evidence of what they witnessed during the conduct of the National Assembly election in Rivers State on March 28, 2015, being some of the security agencies that provided security at the said election.”

Faulting the PDP’s claim that the APC attempted to use security agencies to their advantage, he said “It is therefore, mischievous and indeed unreasonable for anybody, especially the PDP in Rivers State to cast baseless aspersion on these gallant officers of the Nigerian Army and DSS. One can only wonder whether it would not have been foolhardy for the Chief of Army Staff and the DG of the DSS to refuse to comply with the sacrosanct order of the tribunal. In fact, such an act would not only have been foolish, same is indeed a crime as refusal to comply with the tenor of subpoena is outrightly punishable with a criminal contempt proceeding against the culprit.”

He accused the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Rivers State, Mrs Gesila Khan of plans to subvert justice.

“It is our position that if there is anyone to be called to order on this issue, it is nobody but the  REC  in Rivers State, Mrs Khan, who may as well go down in history as the only INEC official in our country to have applied for the setting aside of a court subpoena, by filling an application in that regard.

“I make bold to say that the reputation which Professor Attahiru Jega built for INEC in the recent past is constantly being eroded by the activities of people like the REC in Rivers State and it is only a matter of time for the institution to be reverted to the pre-Jega era, if the REC is not called to order now,” he said.