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From Jude Owuamanam, Jos
There is palpable fear in Plateau, especially in political circles as the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal gets set to deliver judgment on the petition filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate in the March 18 election in Plateau, Nentawe Yilwatda against the declaration of Governor Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner of the election.
Though no date has been given for the judgment, the tribunal had adopted the written submissions of both the respondents and petitioners and had told the counsel to the litigants that a date for the judgement will be communicated to both parties.
However, our correspondent gathered that the declaration of former Governor Simon Lalong and minister of Labour and employment as the winner of the Plateau South Senatorial election has raised the level of political tempo in the state.
This is because the grounds upon which Lalong was declared winner is the same averments of the APC and its governorship candidate.
APC, in one of its grounds, had claimed that the PDP had no structure as at the time they nominated their candidates for the various elective positions in February 25 National Assembly and March 18 Governorship and State Assembly elections.
In the case of Lalong, the tribunal had agreed with the submission of Lalong’s counsel that all the votes garnered by Napoleon Bali of the PDP , upon which he was declared and returned elected were wasted votes as he was invalidly nominated, stressing that as at the time of the nomination, the PDP had no valid structure in Plateau State.
Similarly,the National Assembly Election also declared Engr. Fom Dalyop Chollom of the Labour Party winner of the National Assembly Elections for Barkin Ladi/Riyom Federal constituency.
Fom had challenged the declaration of Peter Gyenden of the PDP on the ground that Gyenden was not validly nominated as the PDP as at the time of the nomination had no valid structure.
A member of PDP, Hon. Bitrus Kaze, who started the litigation against his party, expressed sadness over the turn of events in his party.
Bitrus said that if his party had listened to voice of reason, it would not have found itself in this unfortunate situation.
He said, “We told them ab initio, but they refused to listen. When you have impunity reigning in a party, this is the type of things you get. We lost a whole local government election because of this; we lost Jos North/ Bassa federal constituency because of the same matter. So when a party had an occultic leadership, what do you do. You only sit back and watch and allow justice to take its own course”
However APC Publicity Secretary, Mr. Sylvanus Namang, was upbeat about his party’s chances at the tribunal.
Namang, speaking with our correspondent said “APC is benefitting from PDP’s undoing of itself.”
He added, “We are optimistic that this is going to be a repeat of the Zamfara scenario. It’s not our making because we did not take PDP to court on account of structure. They took themselves to court. We are only benefitting from their own undoing. One of the judges was even kind to them when he asked them then to go and conduct another primaries, but they refused. On our own we told them they don’t have structure. The law is not based on emotion, but on facts and precedent. So the tribunal ruled on the precedent already established.
