The Presidency on Monday criticised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and his party for making wild allegations against President Bola Tinubu, over the sack of some governors by the Court of Appeal.
The appellate court had in recent rulings sacked the duo of Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf and his Plateau State counterpart, Caleb Mutfwang.
The court nullified Yusuf and Mutfwang’s victories in the March 18 election after the appellants proved they were illegally nominated by the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and PDP for the poll.
In a statement issued following the ruling by his media aide, the former vice president accused Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) of trying to silence the opposition through the judiciary.
He also questioned the integrity of the judges who delivered the verdicts.
The Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to the President, Bayo Onanuga, who reacted to the remarks in a statement in Abuja, cautioned the PDP candidate against undermining the country’s democratic institutions.
He berated Atiku and his party for blaming President Tinubu and APC for their electoral woes.
The statement read: “The PDP and former Vice President and his spokesman have become overtly desperate to hang their woes on President Tinubu and the judiciary.
“While we do not hold brief for the judiciary, we urge Nigerians to discountenance the malicious allegations by the PDP and its candidate that President Tinubu as governor of Lagos, silenced the opposition and corrupted the judiciary and that he is planning to foist a one-party state on the country by appointing ‘loyalists’ as Resident Electoral Commissioners.
“President Tinubu is a Democrat to the core. We make bold to say that as president, he has not interfered with the judgment of the judiciary.
“We had witnessed how under his watch, the PDP governor in Osun defeated the APC at the Supreme Court.
“Similarly, the PDP governor in Bauchi also won his case in the Appeal Court, beating the APC.
“These allegations are deliberately aimed at unnecessarily heating up the polity and causing disenchantment in our country.
“They exist only in the imagination of the PDP and the former vice-president.”