The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday charged President Muhammadu Buhari to save the judiciary and the nation further troubles by immediately throwing in the towel and vacating the presidential seat.
PDP gave the call while responding to remark by Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed that Buhari does not know the whereabouts of his WAEC certificate, contrary to his claims and disposition before the law.
A statement by PDP’s spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, 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.
“We note the deliberate ploy of Alhaji Lai Mohammed to appeal to sentiments, seeing that Mr. President had failed to defend himself before the Presidential petition tribunal.”
The party berated the Buhari Presidency for “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.
“PDP holds that the pronouncement and appeal for pardon issued by the government’s spokesperson, who is also a lawyer, is a direct guilt plea, which cannot save President Buhari from the course of justice in this
matter.
“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.”
PDP reminded 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.”
The statement added: “PDP holds that if President Buhari indeed seeks for pardon from Nigerians, he should do the needful by toeing the path of honour and vacating the Presidential seat without further delay.
“It is disheartening that President Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) would put our nation through the troubles of legal hassles when they knew all the while that they were building something on nothing.”
PDP urged 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.”