Supreme Court judgment: APC denies sacrificing Kano state to avoid bloodshed, crisis

…Claims judgment doused polotical tension in Nigeria

From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
All Progressives Congress (APC), has dismissed the insinuations that it sacrificed Kano state in the Supreme Court judgment on the governorship election petition to avoid bloodshed and crisis in the state.
APC Deputy National Organising Secretary, Nze Chidi Duru, made the denial that the party traded off the governorship ticket in Kano at a press conference last weekend in Abuja.
Asked if the leadership of the party intentionally allowed the judgment at the Supreme Court to avoid crisis and bloodshed in Kano, Duru replied: “I just said that the judiciary has spoken and that is why we have various tiers of the judiciary.
“You have the trial court and then you have the Court of Appeal, thereafter you have the Supreme Court and that is not in anyway to denigrate the understanding of the learned justices that were at the various levels of adjudication system.
“The trial court appreciated and pronounced the fact as they understood it. And the same thing happened when they went to the Court of Appeal, it was also basically on the extent they appreciated the matter but those in the final court saw it differently and then of course pronounced judgment on the basis of the facts that were before them.
“It does not and in anyway denigrate one section of the arms of the judiciary against the other. And it is in the wisdom of our founding fathers that we have these various layers of adjudicational process; that first, if you err at the trial court, then those at the higher court may then look at it and find a different understanding base on the understanding that they have.
“I did not see any politics in it. I did not also see any arrangement on the basis of that. What did happen was that at the trial court, they understood the fact differently, at the Court of Appeal they also understood it but more importantly at the Supreme Court which is the final arbiter in the judicial process, a different understanding was given to it and a pronouncement was made accordingly,” Duru argued.
He, however, emphasised that in his view, the verdict has brought calmness to the country at large, stressing; “I think it was a moment for Nigerians to be happy. I also believe that it has in a way douse tension in the country.”