Breaking: Appeal Court sacks Plateau governor

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has nullified the election of Caleb Mutfwang as the governor of Plateau State.

The Appeal Court, in a unanimous judgement on Sunday, November 19, 2023, nullified the election of Mutfwang of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw his Certificate of Return and give it to the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Yiltwatda.

The lead Justice, Elfrieda Williams-Dawodu, set aside the judgement of the tribunal which affirmed the election of Governor Mutfwang, describing it as highly incompetent.

Justice Williams-Dawodu declared that the decision of the tribunal to dismiss the petition filed by the APC and its candidate on the ground that the duo had no business meddling in the affairs of the PDP on which platform Mutfwang was elected is in breach of Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution as amended and Section 134 (C) of the Electoral Act.

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He added that contrary to the decision of the tribunal that the issues contained in the petition filed by the appellants were pre-election matters, they were both pre-election and post-election matters and could not have been deemed status barred.

Citing section 177 of the Constitution, the court held that Mutfwang was not validly sponsored by the PDP during the March 18 gubernatorial election in Plateau State.

Justice Williams-Dawodu said the party violated the court order that a valid congress be conducted in the 17 Local Government Areas of that state, by conducting congress in only five LGAs of the state, and as such is a nullity.

While dismissing the decision of the tribunal, the court held that the issue of qualification is both a pre-election and a post-election matter contrary to the findings of the tribunal which held that the appellant lacked the locus to contest the validity of the respondent.

The Star