The controversy trailing the judicial annulment of the governorship elections in Rivers and Akwa Ibom States has pitted the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Oyegun against his counterpart in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Uche Secondus.

While Secondus accused Oyegun of exhibiting arrogance and impunity in his response to the rulings of the appellate courts on the matter, the APC Chairman said the cry by the PDP was expected.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Secondus said the recent comments of Oyegun conveying the desperation by his party and the Presidency to forcefully take over PDP states in the South-south zone was unfortunate and disappointing.

The PDP acting Chairman warned that a similar desperation by the ruling party to unduly win in the opposition strongholds in the 1964 federal elections precipitated the collapse of the first republic.

Oyegun, in his immediate reaction to the ruling of the Court of Appeal judgment on Rivers state and Akwa Ibom governorship petitions, had said; “I am more confident of winning Akwa Ibom than any other state in the South-south. We are going to win; that is almost a certainty.”

But Secondus described Oyegun’s statement as  not only careless but also smacks of impunity and arrogance that have characterised the APC, adding that it also further “betrays APC’s dirty underhand deals with unscrupulous electoral and judicial operatives, which gives its National Chairman impetus to make sweeping statements that have no place in electoral reality”.

“Perhaps, it is pertinent to ask; ‘how could Chief Oyegun have known for certainty the outcome of the gubernatorial dispute in Akwa Ibom state, a matter that may end up in the Supreme Court? Is this not a clear indication so far that Chief Oyegun and the APC are indeed interfering with the judicial processes in their quest to forcefully take over PDP states? “Chief Oyegun and the APC are cautioned to desist from acts of impunity and inordinate plots that jeopardise our hard-won democracy, which the PDP painstakingly nurtured in the last 16 years.

“At a time our nation is faced with serious issues like insurgency in the north, the Biafra question, the Shiite crisis and general insecurity in the land, the APC government needs to engage in actions and utterances that engender peace, harmony and solidarity from all Nigerians, instead of allowing itself to needlessly dabble into political adventurism and ‘terrorism”.

“We charge Nigerians and all lovers of democracy to stand up against un-democratic proclivities of the APC in its perverse quest to subjugate the people and impose their selfish will in the land”, Secondus added.

However, Oyegun has dismissed the PDP Chairman’s assertion as pointless, saying that the new order under the APC-led government abhors impunity and recklessness.

Oyegun who spoke with CEOAfrica source Thisday on telephone accused the PDP chairman of ignoring clear evidence of malfeasance in the elections in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.

“When people fail to look at issues in a commonsensical way, they go about trying to ruin almost every institution in the country. The judiciary is just one of such institutions. But I believe this is a new dawn, this is a period of due process, a period of change for all being spearheaded by President Muammadu Buhari.”

Regarding the annulled governorship poll in Akwa Ibom, Oyegun said a situation whereby the court recorded that 18 local government areas in the state did not comply with the electoral law clearly shows that the entire election was fraudulent.

“A situation where there was no substantial compliance in 18 out of 31 local council areas, we do not need a lawyer to tell us what the judgment should be. It was based on this count that we knew that the judgment of the lower court will be over-turned.

“And in the case of Rivers state, we were all aware of what happened. There was no day during the electoral contest that three of the APC members were not slaughtered in the state in cold blood. In fact a lot of things happened there that were not supposed to happen and for which the process ought to be flawed.   “But you cannot beat a child and expect him or her not to cry. Cry they must do. I will not prevent him from crying. Let him cry himself out. All we are confident of is that at the end of the day truth and justice will triumph, but cry they have the right to cry as it suits them,” Oyegun added.