Plateau tribunal: APC, PDP bicker over judgements

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the and the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Plateau, have disagreed over the recent Judgements passed by two panels of the National and State Assembly Elections Tribunal held in Jos.

The disagreement followed the conflicting judgements given by the two panels on the same ground of whether or not the PDP has a valid structure to sponsor candidates in an election in the state.

The APC and LP had petitioned the election tribunals in the state to nullify all the elections won by the PDP candidates and declared their candidates’ winners on the basis that the ruling PDP had failed to obey court orders to conduct congresses at ward, LG, and state in 2021.

In their separate rulings, panel (1) of the tribunal led by Justice Muhammad Tukur, held that the PDP does not have a party structure in the state and therefore not qualified to sponsor candidates in an election, adding that the PDP is still in disobedience of court order.

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Panel (2) however, led by Williams Rotimi, held that the PDP has structure and therefore qualified to sponsor candidates in an election as the issue of nomination and qualification is a pre-election matter, adding that the APC had no locus to challenge it.

Daily Trust reports that Tukur’s panel nullified all elections of the PDP candidates filed before it while Rotimi’s led panel upheld the elections of the PDP candidates filed before it.

Dissatisfied with the judgements by the two panels, both PDP and APC petitioned the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola for quick action.

The PDP in the petition, dated September 25 and signed by its state chairman, Christ Hassan to the CJN, described the judgement by the Tukur’s led panel as a deliberate perversion of justice and conspiracy to PDP candidates from parliament.

In a reaction to the PDP’s petition, the APC State Secretary and its Publicity Secretary, Miskoom Fidelis Longban and Sylvanus Namang, in another petition to the CJN, described the PDP’s petition as disappointing, adding that they were duty-bound to react to the said petition because of the insinuations, which tend to portray APC in a bad light, calling for an investigation into the judgement passed by governorship tribunal led by Justice Rita Irele Ifijeh, who also held that PDP candidates in the last election were validly nominated.