The Plateau State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has affirmed Caleb Mutfwang as the duly elected governor of the State.
Delivering judgment on Friday which lasted about two hours, a three-member panel of the tribunal led by Justice Irele Ifineh dismissed the petition filed by the All Progressives Congress and it’s Governorship candidate, Nentawe Yiltwatda.
Yiltwatda and his party (APC) had approached the tribunal to disqualify Mutfwang and declare him the winner of the election, while claiming to have pulled the highest valid votes cast.
Not validly nominated
The petitioners insisted that Mutwang was not validly nominated by his party to stand for election as his party lacked the structure to do so.
They equally challenged the victory of the PDP governor on an alleged over voting in the scores recorded for him by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC
But delivering the judgment, the tribunal held that Yiltwatda and his party failed to prove their case.
The tribunal held that Mutwang’s party (PDP)
conducted a repeat Congress in 2021 and therefore, had a solid structure as a party to nominate candidates for elections.
The Tribunal equally rejected Yiltwatda and his party’s witnesses that BVAS was not used, noting that the total number of votes cast was four out of four voters and as such the tribunal found that there was no case over-voting.
“The witness admitted that he was not in PDP but had an agent that gave him information about the PDP primaries that the party did not have structure. The Witness confirmed under cross examination that he is not a member of PDP, but that whatever happens in the PDP is in public domain.
“The APC in its witness cross examination admitted that the PDP complied with the court order and repeated its congress.
The lead Judge Justice Irele said “No matter how dis-satisfied another party feels on the conduct of another party’s primaries, it must keep mum as it is not a member of that party. Such a person(party) therefore, lacks the locus Standi to challenge such a congress or primary election.
“The Petitioners presented a witness who admitted she was a polling unit agent, but admitted under cross examination in the case of Jos North that the signature on the polling unit result is not her’s. The evidence was therefore expunged by the tribunal.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission declared Mutwang of the Peoples Democratic Party the winner of the March 18 governorship election with 525,299 beating 17 other candidates including Yiltwatda who polled 481,370.
Voice of Nigeria reports that the tribunal had earlier dismissed the petition filed by the New Nigeria People’s Party candidate against the election of Mutfwang for lack of merit.
NAN/ Lateefah Ibrahim
