• Asks President to vacate office over plea for pardon

The Peoples Democratic Party on Sunday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to vacate office as the  President of Nigeria.

It stated that it has viewed the video of the media interview by the Minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and surmised that Buhari should save the judiciary and the nation further troubles by immediately throwing in the towel.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan during a media briefing also emphasised that Buhari should vacate the presidential seat, following what he called, the official admission that Buhari does not possess a WAEC certificate, contrary to his claims and disposition before the law.

He said, “Our party mocks the Buhari Presidency for pushing out the video wherein the Minister pleaded with Nigerians to pardon President Buhari over his false WAEC certificate claims.

“PDP notes the deliberate ploy of  Mohammed to appeal to sentiments, seeing that Mr. President had failed to defend himself before the Presidential petition tribunal.”

He  berated the Buhari Presidency for, according to the him, believing that in pushing the video into the public space, it could influence the mind of the tribunal to bend the law after solid evidence have been presented before it against President Buhari.

He stated  that the pronouncement and appeal for pardon issued by the government’s spokesperson, who is also a lawyer, is a direct guilt plea, which, he said, cannot save Buhari from the course of justice in this matter.

Ologbondiyan said, “From the official pronouncement by the Minister on a national television, it is no longer in dispute before all Nigerians that President Buhari does not possess the educational certificate he claimed in the affidavit he deposed to in his presidential nomination form.

“In this latest shenanigan, President Buhari and his handlers ought to have known that the law, which the judiciary is bound to uphold, is a respecter of no man.

“The PDP reminds President Buhari of how his Presidency vehemently applied the law in similar circumstance to remove a head of an arm of government; a situation, which renders his plea for pardon a complete nullity before the law.”

According to him, if   Buhari indeed sought for pardon from Nigerians, he should do the needful by toeing the path of honour and vacating the presidential seat without further delay.

He said, “It is disheartening that President Buhari and his All Progressives Congress would put our nation through the troubles of legal hassles when they knew all the while that they were building something on nothing.

“The PDP therefore urges the Judiciary to consider the evidence before it and rescue our nation by expediting its verdict to point to nothing other than the justice of the matter in the presidential election petition.”

Credit: The Punch