The Plateau State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Jos has upheld the election of Caleb Mutfwang of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the duly elected governor of the state.
Delivering judgment on Friday in the petition filed by Nentawe Yilwatda, candidate of the, the All Progressives Congress (APC), challenging Mutfwang’s election in the March 2023 governorship election, the three-man panel, led by Justice Sunday Olorundahunsi, declared that the petition lack merit and unanimously affirmed Mutfwang’s election.
The panel noted that despite the wild allegations by Yilwatda and his party, the APC, there was no evidence to show that the election was not lawfully held as the petitioners failed to tender another result to be considered authentic.
What is admitted needs no further proof”, the tribunal ruled, noting that the APC has admitted in its petition that the PDP repeated its congress.
“The tribunal is of the view that the PDP conducted a repeat Congress in 2021 and therefore has a structure,” Justice Olorundahunsi said.
<span;>The tribunal said it lacks jurisdiction to entertain the petitioners’ challenge of the repeated congresses by the PDP as they (the petitioners) are busybodies and meddlesome interlopers.
The tribunal also observed that there were so many errors and inconsistencies by the petitioners’ expert witness under cross-examination that “even a Primary 6 pupil would do better in his basic arithmetic”, and are therefore signals for the tribunal to take the evidence of this witness with a pinch of salt and to treat him with caution.
The tribunal ruled that it had no basis to nullify the election, seeing that the petition “is a wild goose chase and is bound to fail. The petition is hereby dismissed”.
Nentawe had approached the tribunal to challenge the declaration of Mutfwang by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as Governor of Plateau State, alleging that Mutfwang was not qualified to contest having not been validly nominated and sponsored by his party (PDP) as the party had no structure at the time of the said election.
