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The Supreme Court, on Friday, reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Abuja which sacked Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau from office.
The governor, who contested the March 18, 2023 governorship of Plateau State and won, on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had, in his appeal, asked the apex court to set aside the November 19, 2023 judgment of the Court of Appeal which nullified his election on grounds of non-qualification.
In a judgment prepared and delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the Supreme Court held that Mutfwang was duly nominated as the governorship candidate of the PDP and that he was sponsored for the Plateau state governorship election by the party, which forwarded his name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as its candidate.
Justice Agim held in the unanimous judgment that the petitioners at the lower Tribunal are not members of the PDP and as such, have no legal right to question the candidature of the party.
He held that the issue of candidature of a party is purely an internal affair of a party and since the respondents have no legal right to institute the action, the Plateau State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has no jurisdiction to entertain the action.
The court held that the order of the Plateau State High Court has nothing to do with the exercise of the power of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the party to nominate its candidate.
“For these reasons, this appeal is allowed, the judgment of the Court of Appeal is set aside”, the court held and restored the judgment of the trial Tribunal which had earlier upheld Mutfwang’s election.
The apex court also reaffirmed the return and declaration of Caleb Mutfwang by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the duly elected governor of Plateau State.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja had, in a unanimous judgment, sacked governor Mutfwang who had 525,299 votes while the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Goshwe, polled 481,370 votes in the March 18 governorship election in the state.
Goshwe challenged the victory of Mutfwang at the Plateau State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal claiming that the governor was not validly nominated and sponsored by his party and that, there was non-compliance with the Electoral Act in the conduct of the election.
A three-member panel of the tribunal headed by Justice R. Irele-Ifijeh dismissed the petition for lacking in merit.
Displeased with the judgment, the APC’s candidate appealed the tribunal judgment.
In its judgment, the three-member panel of the Court of Appeal led by Justice Elfrieda Williams-Dawodu, citing Section 177 of the Constitution, held that the governor was not validly sponsored by the PDP for the election.
