From Jude Owuamanam, Jos

Hundreds of youths under the aegis of the National Youths Movement (NYM) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Friday protested the Appeal Court judgements, which sacked all the National Assembly members elected under the Party.

Two Senators and four members of the House of Representatives from the state were sacked by the appellate court on account of lack of compliance to court order.

The Justice Elfrieda Williams-Dawodu led three-member panel of the appellate court noted held that the PDP acted in breach of a subsisting court order, when it sponsored them as its candidates for the National Assembly election that held in the state on February 25.

According to the appellate court, the PDP spurned an order that was made in a suit marked PLD/J/304/2021, which directed it to conduct fresh Congress involving all the 17 Local Government Areas in Plateau State.

The court noted that rather than complying with the order, the party proceeded to nominate the candidates that eventually won elections in their various constituency.

It held that the order that was made by a High Court in Plateau state, being a judgement in Rem, was not only binding but sacrosanct, saying it ought to have been fully obeyed.

The youths called on the National Judicial Council (NJC) to review the recent judgments to restore the confidence of Plateau people on the judiciary.

The Chairperson of the Movement, Miss Sele Prama, who led the protest across major streets in Jos said the youths were dissatisfied with the outcome of the Court of Appeal judgments.

She said that the judgments which mortgaged the popular will of the people, which had robbed Plateau people of quality representation at the national level.

Prama, said that the call for the review became necessary because the grounds used by the appellate court to sack the lawmakers were purely pre-election matters that has been addressed by the Supreme Court.

”We are here today first as Plateau citizens and members of the PDP national youth movement to express our displeasure with recent judgments of the appeal court that sacked some of our lawmakers

”We view it as an injustice meted on our party and it has also denied Plateau people quality representation at the national levels. It is sad that the judiciary, which is the last hope of the common man, has allowed the politicians to use it as mere tools to achieve their selfish desires.

”We have come out not to be violent, but to seek redress and to specifically call on the NJC to take more serious look on these judgments and review them to provide justice for Plateau people.”

Prama also called on the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, to also wade into the matter being a daughter of the state.

Speaking also, Mr Dang Choji, a PDP official in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau, insisted that the PDP has valid structure.

He insisted that the party dully complied with the directives of the court and repeated its congress after the first one, adding that the recent appeal court judgments are mere a conspiracy to subvert the will of the people.

Also hundreds of youths and women from the Muslim community in Plateau State have joined the protests over Appeal court judgments which sacked two Senators and four Members of the House of Representatives, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Plateau State.

The protest came at a time youths from the 17 local government areas of the State, who barricaded major streets like the Old Airport Junction and Mararaba Jama’a, demanding the review of the Judgements by the Appeal Court.

The youths unanimously described the development as an act of injustice and an attempt to rob the State of the mandate the people gave to the PDP.

The Secretary of Hausa/Fulani PDP Forum, Abdulkarim Yaro called on the National Judicial Council, NJC to review the Appeal court judgments which was hinged on a pre-election matter that the Apeal tribunal does not have the jurisdiction to entertain.

According to Yaro, “We got up to express our displeasure with the recent judgments by the Appeal Court because we know we have been robbed of our mandate. In other States, this issue has been taken as a pre-election matter, but why is the case of Plateau different.

“We from the Muslim community, align our voice with all the groups from Plateau who came out to speak against this injustice, we were to protest but the Police said no so as law-abiding citizens, we have no other option than to obey but we demand that the whole nation should look at Plateau. Why are we treated differently?” He lamented.

Women leader of the group, Lubabatu Ali, described the judgment as civilian coup de tat and called on critical stakeholders in the judiciary and Nigerians to raise against what they termed as injustice against the people of Plateau State.

She said, said that the issues adjudicated by the appellate court were pre-election matters, which the apex court had dwelt extensively on.

“This Congress they are saying, I am a member of the PDP and I participated in it. It happened in the presence of INEC, it happened in the presence of the people, why are people not sincere, who is targeting at Plateau and for what reason?” she said.