…As Plateau PDP cries foul
From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
Over the past weeks, the political landscape has witnessed a judicial tsunami that has swept away over nine federal lawmakers from their respective seats in a manner that has sent shock waves to their affected political parties.
The Court of Appeal had in their separate judgments sacked the affected lawmakers from both chambers of the National Assembly for different reasons.
Some of the affected lawmakers include Senators Elisha Abbo (APC Adamawa North); Abubakar Sadiku-Ohere (APC Kogi Central); Simon Mwadkwon (PDP Plateau North and Senate Minority Leader); Darlington Nwokocha; Musa Ilyasu Kwankwaso and a member of House of Representatives, Hon. Jingi Rufai (Mubi North, Mubi South and Maiha, Adamawa State).
But the judgment that has set many tongues wagging is the one involving the Senate Minority Leader, Simon Mwadkwon, a Senator representing Plateau North on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP).
Sen. Nwadkwon was the third Senator to be sacked by the court. It however, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) to conduct a rerun within 90 days.
The three member panel of the Abuja division of the Court of Appeal in a unanimous judgment held 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 same judgment was dished out for Bassa/Jos North Federal Constituency. This was because Labour Party came second for Senatorial election and PRP came second for Bassa/Jos North Election.
But the case was different for Shendam/Quanpan/Mikang Federal Constituency where the PDP victory was nullified and the certificate of return withdrawn and handed over to APC candidate who won in one out of 32 Federal Wards.
In all, four members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Plateau State, from the National Assembly, were sacked by the Court of Appeal based on a pre-election dispute.
The above judgments have raised controversy particularly within the PDP, which strongly believed that the subject matter before the court bordered squally on the issue of nomination and sponsorship of candidates by a political party, which they argued, rightly so, that is an internal affairs of the party and therefore outside the jurisdiction of the court.
This is because it’s an established principles of law that pre- election matters are purely internal affairs of political parties and opposition parties have no right to meddle into them.
Who is After Plateau State?
The Court of Appeal by departing from judicial principles regarding the issue of nomination/sponsorship of candidates, including Supreme Court decisions, has created fears and suspicion in the minds of people of Plateau that the state is being targeted by the powers that be, for political and selfish reasons.
The situation took a different dimension on Monday, November 13 when over 1,000 protesters stormed the Supreme Court to express their anger and concern over the issue.
Armed with a protest letter that was submitted to the Chief Justice of Nigeria(CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, the protesters under the aegies of Coalition for Justice in Africa, CJA, said their complaint is that the appellate court, by its judgment, thwarted the wish of electorates in Plateau state, when it declared candidates that lost the National Assembly elections that held on February 25, as winners of the legislative seats.
National President of the CJA, Dr. Daniel Okwa, stated that the judgment of the appellate court was capable of causing a breakdown of law and order in the state while accusing some chieftains of the APC of influencing the judgments and therefore, seek the intervention of the CJN.
The fear of the group and the PDP can be better understood within the context of the pending appeal by the APC before the same court challenging the election of Governor Caleb Mutfwang.
Already, arguments have been taken and judgment has been reserved to a date to be communicated to parties.
Speaking on its state of preparedness for the 2023 elections as well as developments after the polls, the PDP said it came out stronger and victorious from the shock of losing the 2015 and 2019 Governorship elections to the All Progressives Congress (APC) by putting in place the right and formidable party structure under the leadership of Hon. Chris Hassan.
The party carried out an in-house assessment after the 2019 General Elections and decided to conduct a fresh party congress in 2020, preparatory to the 2023 General Elections. At the congress, Hon. Chris Hassan defeated Hon. Bitrus Kaze to emerge the State Chairman of the party.
Hon. Kaze, who was dissatisfied with the outcome of the congress, challenged the emergence of Chris Hassan as the PDP Chairman at the State High Court, Jos, where Justice Gang passed judgment in favour of Kaze and ordered for the repeat of the State Congress.
The National Secretariat of the PDP disbanded the Chris Hassan Committee and set up a Caretaker Committee headed by Sen. Tunde Ogbeha.
Within this period, Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC) had released a time table to conduct Local Government Elections in the state.
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP conducted its primary elections and came up with the party’s Chairmanship and Councilorship candidates and submitted same to PLASIEC ahead of the Local Government elections. PLASIEC carried out its constitutional responsibility by screening and clearing all the PDP candidates to participate in the election.
But Hon. Bitrus Kaze wrote to the PLASIEC leadership and demanded the disqualification of all PDP candidates from participating in the 2021 Local Government elections. The letter was honoured and PLASIEC disqualified all PDP candidates from participating in the said elections which paved way for all APC candidates to automatically emerge as Chairmen and Councillors across the 17 Local Government Areas.
While the PDP dragged PLASIEC to Court to challenge the disqualification of the PDP candidates from participating in the local government elections, the National Working Committee of the PDP, in compliance to the court order, set up a congress committee headed by His Excellency, Prince Olusola Akanmode, with Hon. Dr. Sha’aban Ohinoyi, Mrs Chioma Nnaji, Audu-War Mathias as members while Kabiru Magaji served as secretary of the congress committee.
The Commissioner of Police, Plateau State Command, was notified. He mobilized his men to provide security at the venue of the Congress. In addition, INEC witnessed, observed and monitored the repeated congress held at Langfield Event Centre, Rayfield, Jos, Plateau State on the 25th of September, 2021 and issued a Report to that effect.
All the Plaintiffs/Judgment Creditors in the Suit, that is Hon. Bitrus Kaze and others, participated in the said congress held on September 25, 2021 which produced the current state Executive Committee headed by Hon. Chris Hassan, as Chairman of the Plateau State Chapter of the PDP.
The Congress was conducted peacefully, without rancour whatsoever, and all the aspirants, inclusive of the Plaintiffs/Judgment Creditors (Bitrus Kaze) were given ample opportunity to participate in the State Congress and Bitrus Kaze accepted the outcome in good faith and congratulated Hon. Chris Hassan for emerging the new Chairman of the party.
However, the State High Court, under Justice Kunda, entered Judgment in the PLASIEC case with PDP in favour of PLASIEC because there was no evidence before the court that the party had repeated the congresses in compliance with the Court order. The PDP proceeded to Appeal Court and after the repeat congress on September 25, 2021, the PDP withdrew its case at the Appeal Court.
Since then, none of those who participated in the repeated congress, including Bitrus Kaze, or any other member of the party, challenged the outcome of the repeated congress, having accepted the result in good faith and congratulated the winner.
At this point, PDP had a recognized and valid State Executive Committee of the party headed by Hon. Chris Hassan.
The PDP, in its determination to take over power in 2023, commenced the preparation for the 2023 general election where the National Working Committee released the guidelines for the election of the three adhoc delegates which was conducted by the PDP North Central Vice Chairman, Hon. Theophilus Dakas Shan, with the exclusion of the State Executive Committee in line with the 2022 Electoral Act.
The party conducted its primaries peacefully from the State House of Assembly, the National Assembly and the Governorship primaries which produced Governor Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang.
His emergence as the PDP flag bearer brought a sigh of relief to Plateau people due to his competent and renewed commitment to drive the peace and unity of the state. To many, including some members of the opposition, his emergence marked the beginning of PDP taking over the state in 2023.
Having put all these necessary structures in place, the PDP then boasted that as a law abiding and people- oriented party with human face in Plateau, it did what other political parties did not do by holding a state congress.
The PDP went further to accuse the APC of not holding a party congress, as what the APC did at Crest Hotel, Jos was a charade. It was seen as a tea party by commentators as it fell short of all democratic processes.
A chieftain of the PDP, who spoke on condition of anonymity said the genuine members of the party, who purchased forms to contest the election, such as Ishaya Itse and others, were disbanded from the party, leaving Rufus Bature, a man who did not purchase the party form, to contest the chairmanship position of the party unopposed.
This undemocratic action ended in litigations that questioned the integrity and credibility of the party to lead the state in 2023 coupled with the monumental failure of the APC government under Simon Lalong.
As if that is not enough, the APC repeated the same show of shame during the governorship primary election in June, 2022 held at Langfield Event Centre, Jos. The party, under Rufus Bature, teleguided the party delegates, with names of most of the delegates across the 17 local government areas changed to their political cronies.
This led to a massive protest from most of the aspirants who had purchased forms to contest the party’s primaries. Most of them, including the former Deputy Governor, Prof. Sonni Tyoden, staged a walk out from the venue. That was how their rejected candidate during the polls was rejected by Plateau people.
At the National Assembly Election, the PDP won two Senatorial Seats and five Members of the House of Representatives, leaving APC with one Senate seat and three House of Representatives seat.
The PDP equally won the Governorship Election in the state overwhelmingly with 16 members of the House of Assembly out of 24 seats.
The victory of Governor Mutfwang was greeted with outbreak of spontaneous celebrations across the nooks and crannies of the 17 local government areas of the state. A lot of people believed that Governor Mutfwang’s victory was divine as his support cut across all ethnic and religious groups.
At this point, the APC worked hard to stop the inauguration that took place on the May 29, 2023. They followed through the Appeal Court to the Apex Court to thwart what God has destined but their effort was not fruitful. They were consoled with the saying that they will go to the tribunal and if victory is not given to them, they will retrieve all the positions at the Appeal Court.
However, when the Tribunal started, there were two panels for the National and the State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal. One of the panels ruled in favour of the PDP that the party complied with the court order and repeated the party congresses while another ruled that the party violated the court order and has no valid structure to sponsor candidates for the 2023 elections.