By Yemi Yusuf
The Minister of State for Labour and Employment and Chief Spokesperson for the APC Presidential Campaign, Festus Keyamo, SAN, has described as “hot air” the allegations by the opposition PDP that his party was planning to influence the outcome of the Court’s proceedings in the Presidential Election Petitions which hearing begins today in Abuja.
Keyamo said PDP and the Labour Party were in fact the ones speaking out against the outcome of the largely free and fair 2023 Presidential elections when their cases are still pending in Court. “That is contempt of court and we are within our rights to correct the wrong impressions about the elections being created before Nigerians and the international community,” he said.
He described the two parties as “Siamese twins,” and accused Peter Obi of treating Atiku as his boss, and said they were the ones guilty of issuing threats against the judiciary and judicial officers, “either by themselves or through their surrogates, be they in religious circles or in civil society or the labour unions. So, by pretentiously raising this so-called alarm, they are playing a game of ‘reverse psychology.” he said.
Keyamo said it is traditional for INEC to stand by its results in every state where it held elections including all the states won by the opposition parties, whether it be in the governorship or National Assembly elections where INEC have filed responses in court defending those declarations of the winners as correct. He said the fact that the electoral body is standing by the results of the Presidential Election is not therefore strange. “They should have also queried INEC for defending them in those States where they won,” he argued.
He disparaged the “panic Press Conference” held by the PDP as merely playing to the gallery. “The allegations are infantile, lacking in substance and devoid of proof. Nigerians should dismiss them with a wave of the hand,” he said.
