The Supreme Court has reserved judgment in the appeal filed by the Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang, seeking to overturn the verdict of the Court of Appeal which nullified his election.
Recall that the lower court had on November 19 sacked Mutfwang of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in an appeal filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Nentawe Goshwe, which challenged his declaration as the winner of the March 18, 2023 election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Mutfwang the winner with 525,299 votes, while Goshwe was credited with 481,370 votes.
The Plateau State Tribunal had affirmed Mutfwang’s election on the ground that PDP’s congress remained an internal party affair that could not be challenged by an outsider.
Undeterred, Goshwe appealed the tribunal’s decision to the Appeal Court, requesting that the tribunal’s judgment be overturned.
A five-member panel of justices led by Justice John Okoro reserved judgement after hearing arguments from parties for and against the appeal.
The governor through his counsel, Kanu Agabi, prayed the court to uphold the judgement of the Tribunal and set aside the judgment of the appellate court because the respondents have no right to question how a party elects its state executives.
He said the respondents (Nentawe Goshwe and the All Progressives Congress) cannot plead that the governor did not score the number of lawful votes ascribed to him at the same time say the election was invalid.
The APC and its candidate, on their part, argued that Mutfwang’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is in disobedience of a valid court order that directed them to conduct congress in 17 local governments but only conducted in five before going into the March governorship election.
