The Plateau State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has ruled against the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal’s decision to award Mr. Simon Lalong the Senate seat for Plateau South.
Chairman Chris Hassan, speaking to reporters in Jos on Tuesday, strongly disagreed with the verdict.
On Monday, Justice M. B. Tukur, head of the tribunal, announced that Lalong had won the National Assembly elections held on February 25. This was reported by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
It also declared Fom Dalyop of the Labour Party (LP), who came in second, the winner of the Riyom/Barkin Ladi Federal Constituency, therefore nullifying the election of Mr Peter Gyendeng.
The two had gone to the tribunal to contest the election of PDP candidates Napoleon Bali and Gyendeng to the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The petitioners said that the PDP lacked organization at the time of their nomination, which led the tribunal to rule against the winners.
Hassan did not accept the verdict but maintained that the judges’ decisions did not advance the cause of justice.
The PDP was shocked and concerned to see the results of the recount in the Plateau South Senate seat and the Barkin Ladi/Riyom Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.
Since justice was not done and the verdict did not reflect the law or the will of the people as freely stated in the election, we cannot accept it in any form.
The verdict “was an electoral robbery that is unacceptable to the people of Plateau” since it “is contrary to the will of the people of the constituencies which was freely expressed via the votes we got in the election,” he said.
Hassan said that the panel erred by basing its decision in favor of the petitioners on disputes inside the PDP.
He said his party had a new congress after Justice S.P. Gang’s ruling and insisted that the new congress resulted in “a solid and valid structure” for the party.
He continued, stating the court’s ruling was completely unsatisfactory since it lacked even the tiniest shred of fairness.
The Chairman of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal has stated that the recent consolidated judgements are a detour from the pure will and choices of the people.
With a new congress held in September 2021 under the watchful eye of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the PDP had complied with Justice S. P. Gang’s ruling.
The state executive of the Party was upheld as legitimately elected thanks to a ruling from the Federal High Court sitting in Jos written by Justice D. V. Agishi in the case of Augustine Timkuk versus PDP.
On 11 February 2023, the Court of Appeal in Jos issued a verdict in which Justice T. Y. Hassan, Justice I. A. Andenyangtso, and Justice O. O. Goodluck all ruled in favor of the PDP.
By God’s unique favor, we believe that the PDP’s foundational framework, upon which our mandate rests, will endure.
This is because “the seven judgments of panel two of the National and State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, which is a sister panel to this one, affirmed the same position,” he explained.
But Hassan said the party will look for legal options to keep its mandate, and that the ruling would not shake the party’s faith in the judicial system.
He urged party members to follow the rules and vote for Bali and Gyendeng so that the party might win the election.
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