Stop slander, blackmail against judiciary – Presidency warns PDP, Atiku

Mr Bayo Onanuga, President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, has urged the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to halt their campaign of slander and intimidation directed towards the judiciary.

Onanuga made the demand in a statement on Monday in Abuja in response to Atiku’s recent criticism of the nation’s judiciary.

“In separate statements, the PDP and the spokesman of Atiku Abubakar, its defeated presidential candidate in the Feb. 25 presidential election, threw caution to the winds.

“They assaulted the integrity of the judiciary and made wild and libelous allegations against President Bola Tinubu.

“In the wake of the poor run of some elected governors of the party at the appeal court, the PDP and the former vice-president and his spokesman have become overtly desperate to hang their woes on President Tinubu and the judiciary, an important arm of government in Nigeria,” he said

He continued that by placing blame elsewhere, Atiku and his supporters were unable to show that they had given their accusations any serious thought before making them public.

He asked Nigerians to reject the false accusations made by the PDP and its candidate, which claimed that Tinubu had corrupted the judiciary and stifled the opposition while serving as Lagos State governor.

Additionally, he urged the populace to reject the claim that Tinubu intended to designate supporters as Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in order to impose a one-party state on the nation.

Onanuga emphasized that Tinubu was a staunch democrat who had never meddled with a court’s decision.