The Supreme Court has reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeal that sacked Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State from office on ground of unlawful nomination.
The judgment read Friday by Justice Emmanuel Agim held that the court below made an error in allowing the All Progressives Congress APC to delve into the conduct of the primary election by the People’s Democratic Party PDP and nullified the election unjustly.
The court held that the issue of primary election was an internal affair of political parties and that no other party can dabble into it except members of the same party.
Besides, Justice Agim said that the issue of alleged improper conduct of the ward and local government election used to sack the Governor was not justiceable.
According to him, the conduct of the ward and local government election was an affair of the State Executive Committee of a political party while the conduct of the primary election for the nomination of a governorship candidate is entirely that of the National Executive Committee of a political party.
Also, the court established that there was no issue of irregularities in the ways and manners the Governorship primary election that produced the governor was conducted in Plateau and wondered why that of the ward election was used to nullify the gubernatorial poll.
He said that evidence was even well adduced that an order of Plateau State High Court allegedly disobeyed was indeed obeyed by parties involved.
Therefore, the court unanimously voided and set aside the order of the Court of Appeal that Nentawe Goshwehe, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) be inaugurated as Plateau State Governor.
The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the Plateau State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which had earlier dismissed the petition of the APC and its governorship candidate.
Governor Mutfwang of the PDP scored 525,299 votes to beat the All Progressives Congress candidate, Nentawe Yilwatda, who garnered 481,370 votes during the 18 March governorship poll in Plateau State.
The governor’s election was upheld by the Plateau State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Jos, the state capital.
However, the Court of Appeal in Abuja, in its judgment delivered on 19 November 2023, overturned Mr Mutfwang’s victory, prompting him to file an appeal at the Supreme Court to challenge the lower court’s decision.
