Plateau South: PDP Loses Senatorial Seat To APC 

The Appeal Court has nullified the participation of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its Senatorial candidate in the February 25, National Assembly Election, Napoleon Binkap Bali, for Plateau South Senatorial District on ground of refusal to carry out lawful order of Court. In a judgment delivered by Justice Elfaida Oluwayemisi Williams-Dawodu declared as unlawful and wasted votes cast for PDP in the election and declared the former Governor of the State, Simon Bako Lalong as the Senator for the Plateau South Senatorial District. Lalong who stood for the election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had come second in the February Senatorial election. Justice Williams-Dawodu held that the PDP and its Senatorial candidate have no legal ground to participate in the election having failed to obey the judgment of a Plateau High Court that the party should conduct lawful elections for the purpose of having officers for Wards, Local Governments and State Council. The Plateau High Court had in 2022 ordered PDP to conduct elections for selection of officers for Wards, Local Governments and the State Chapter of the party which was not complied with. The Court of Appeal said that disobedience and disregard to clear lawful order of Court was fatal because PDP hurriedly put an illegal Caretaker Committee in place in utter confrontation to the Court judgment. Specifically, the Appellate Court held that PDP did not sponsor any candidate for the Plateau South Senatorial District because it was not qualified to stand for any election as at February 25, 2023. “As at February 25, PDP was on a faulty background at nomination of candidate for any election. It has no legal foundation upon which it’s candidate nomination can stand. “A positive order of Court must be complied with unless such order is voided and set aside by a higher Court.  “In the instant case, the lawful existing and subsisting Court order was that PDP should conduct elections in line with provisions of the law to have officers at Wards, Local Governments and State Council but the party for reasons best known to it, opted to go against the order. “I cannot but agreed totally with judgment of the Plateau National Assembly Election Tribunal which in its judgment of September 11, 2023 nullified the participation of PDP in the February 25 National Assembly Election”. The Court of Appeal subsequently upheld the declaration of Simon Lalong as the lawful Senator for Plateau South Senatorial District having scored second highest votes at the election. Other Justices of the Court of Appeal who agreed with the judgment are Mohammed Mustapha and Okon Abang. Simon Lalong, the immediate past Governor of Plateau State is currently the Minister of Labour in the President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

Appeal Court Sacks Senate Minority Leader, Mwadkwon, Orders Rerun

The Court of Appeal in Abuja, Sunday, nullified the election of the Senate Minority Leader, Simon Mwadkwon, in the February 25 senatorial election in the Plateau North Senatorial District. A three-member appeal panel ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to, within 90 days, conduct a fresh election in the senatorial district. This is a ruling on the appeal filed by Mr Chris Giwa of the All Progressives Congress and Mr Gyang Zi of the Labour Party. Giwa and Zi had appealed against the judgment of the election petitions tribunal in Jos, Plateau State which, affirmed Mwadkwon of the Peoples Democratic Party as the winner of the senatorial poll. The appellants had contended that Mwadkwon was not qualified to stand for an election as his party, the PDP, which nominated him during the election, had no structure to do so, having not complied with an earlier high court order for the party to conduct a proper state congress. Justice E. Daudu, who read the lead judgment of the appellate court, held that the high court order was not fully complied with by the PDP as 12 LGAs didn’t participate in the said congress. “The court made total findings with regard to the issue in focus.  “To avoid anarchy, I agree with the appellants that the court must protect an order of another court. “I agree with the appellant that the third respondent had no valid structure and could not have claimed to have validly nominated the second respondent (Mwadkwon) for the election.  “Given the findings of this court, the appeal, therefore, succeeds as the court order was not complied with. “The first respondent is hereby ordered to conduct another senatorial election in Plateau North within 90 days,” the judge ruled.