PDP to appeal judgement on Kogi governorship primary

The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the judgement of Kogi State High Court, which voided the party’s governorship primary election conducted prior to the November 16, 2019 governorship election in Kogi state.

The party said it has directed its team of Lawyers to appeal the judgement, describing it as a classical example of “judicial rascality and scandalous travesty of justice.”

A governorship aspirant on the platform of the PDP, Mohammed Ibrahim had approached the High Court in the state challenging the emergence of Musa Wada as candidate of the party for the November 16, 2019 governorship election.

Addressing a press conference yesterday in Abuja, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan said the judgement cannot stand, adding that “our party will stop at nothing in exploring all legal avenues to immediately set it aside at the appellate courts.”

“For the avoidance of doubt, Nigerians are all aware that our great party, on the 3rd and 4th of November 2019, duly conducted our primary for the Kogi governorship election, which was monitored and certified by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and which produced our candidate, Engr. Musa Wada, who fully participated in the November 16th 2019 governorship election.

“It is therefore instructive to state that the pre-election suit filed in the Kogi High Court by only one of our many aspirants in the primary, Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed Ibrahim, only sought the court to declare him the winner of PDP primary election.

“The following questions are pertinent; Why did the trial Judge proceed to declare the PDP primary invalid when there was no such prayer before the court? Why did the trial Judge declare that the PDP had no candidate for the governorship election of 16th November 2019, when there was no such prayers before the court? Is the trial Judge a Santa Claus to award judgments that were not sought for?

“The PDP therefore intends to send a petition to the National Judicial Council (NJC) against the trial judge as his conduct amounted to gross misconduct, which our judiciary must not condone. Such judicial officer should not be allowed to continue to bring the institution of our judiciary to disrepute,” the party said.