Appeal Court removes Plateau governor, declares APC candidate winner

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Sunday sacked the governor of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang.

In its judgment on Sunday, the three-member panel of the Court of Appeal led by Justice Elfrieda Williams-Dawodu, citing Section 177 of the Constitution, held that the governor was not validly sponsored by the PDP for the election.

She held that the party violated a court order directing it to conduct a valid congress in the 17 local government areas of that state.

She said there was no evidence that the PDP complied with a subsisting High Court order which had directed it to conduct a valid party congress prior to its sponsorship of the governorship and other candidates.

The court held that the issue of qualification is both a pre-election and a post-election matter contrary to the position of the tribunal which held that the appellant lacked the locus to contest the validity of the respondent.

Mutfwang of the PDP had 525,299 votes while his APC challenger, Nentawe Goshwe, polled 481,370 votes in the governorship election on 18 March, 2023.

Recall Goshwe challenged the victory at the tribunal saying that Mutfwang did not comply with the Electoral Act as he was not validly nominated and sponsored by his party.

He also said there was non-compliance with the Electoral Act in the election.

A three-member panel of the tribunal headed by Justice R. Irele-Ifijeh, in a unanimous decision, dismissed the petition for lacking in merit, but Goshwe headed to the appellate court. In its judgment on Sunday, the appeal court headed by Justice Elfrieda Williams-Dawodu sacked Mutfwang for not being validly sponsored by the PDP for election.

However, criticisms have trailed the sacking of Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State by the Court of Appeal, triggering reactions that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was at work to run one-party system in Nigeria.

The sacking of Mutfwang was the third experience of the opposition in four days.

On Thursday, the appeal court sacked Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State of PDP, declaring that the governorship election in March was inconclusive.

The following day, the same court nullified the election of the Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).g

These recent court rulings leading to the sacking of opposition governors have gotten Nigerians talking as they pointed to the APC as the mastermind.

Last week, Ambassador Iliya Damagum, Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), raised the alarm that there was a plot to overturn the will of the people as expressed during the general elections.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, Damagum alleged that there was a design by the APC to “cripple democracy, overthrow the democratic rights of Nigerians, suppress the Rule of Law and downgrade our nation to a fiefdom run by the whims of a cabal.”

Shehu Sani, a former senator, wrote: “The Court of Appeal Judgement against the electoral victory of the Plateau State Governor is unfortunate, unacceptable and condemnable. A broad daylight heist of the will of the people.The bench is becoming the coffin of democracy.”