A group: Peace and Justice for the Common Man, has appealed to the National Judicial Council to intervene even as it has called on Monica Dongban-Mensem, President of the Court of Appeal, to disown political actors in Plateau State boasting of their connections with the judiciary to take control of the state.
The group spoke in the wake of the tension in Plateau State fanned by the contradictory judgments.
This has seen some courts give conflicting judgments and usurp the orders of the Supreme Court that put pre-election matters outside the purview of elections tribunals.
In a statement signed by the Chairman, Dawuda Elisha, and General Secretary Muhammad Dahiru, in Abuja, the group urged Justice Dongban-Mensem to disown political actors who have been boasting that they would use her townsman, who is also the Minister of Labour and Employment and former Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, to create chaos in Plateau State.
It would be recalled that Lalong, who as an incumbent governor lost his bid for the Plateau South Senatorial District seat by more than 50,000 votes, was recently awarded the same seat after the National Assembly Elections Petitions Tribunal used a pre-election issue to remove the winner and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Napoleon Bali.
Lalong was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the poll.
A number of other victorious PDP political office holders have been stripped of victory based on the pre-election issue despite the Supreme Court ruling that pre-election matters should not be used to determine election cases as was done in the case of President Bola Tinubu.
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The group expressed dismay at the behaviour of several individuals, including Yusuf Adamu Gagdi, Ahmed Idris Wase, Simon Lalong and the APC governorship candidate, Nentawe Yilwatda, who openly boasted about the party forcefully seizing the PDP mandate at the Court of Appeal with the alleged influence of the President.
The group emphasised that the Appeal Court’s judgment was based on a pre-election matter that had been previously addressed and resolved by several Supreme Court judgments.
They pleaded with the NJC to intervene by holding the President of the Appeal Court accountable.
The group highlighted that Plateau State PDP had complied with the state High Court’s order by conducting a repeat party congress on September 25, 2021, supervised by the Independent National Electoral Commission, and presented the results at the lower tribunal in Jos.
The Chairman clarified that no member of the PDP or any individual had challenged the repeated congress, which was conducted transparently, even with the participation of Bitrus Kaze, who had initiated the earlier suit but accepted defeat.
The group further explained that the matter was dismissed at the election tribunal because it was a pre-election issue falling under the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, not the tribunal.
It pointed out the relevant sections of the constitution and the Electoral Act, emphasising that only an aspirant can challenge the nomination and sponsorship of any candidate within 14 days after the primary election.
Additionally, the group cited a judgment from the Appeal Court on October 20, 2023, which dismissed a similar case from Hon. A. Asirawu in Borno State, highlighting the tribunal’s lack of jurisdiction over pre-election matters.
The group urgently called on President Tinubu and the NJC to address the Plateau State PDP Appeal cases and ensure that justice prevails in the collective interest of the state.