Posted by Senate Minority Leader Simon Mwadkwon’s victory in the Plateau North senatorial election on February 25 has been overturned by the Court of Appeal’s Abuja division.
This came about because the Appeal Court mandated a new election be held by INEC (the Independent National Electoral Commission) within the next 90 days.
The court ruled on petitions submitted by All Progressives Congress (APC) member Chris Giwa and Labour Party (LP) member Gyang Zi.
Mwadkwon of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was previously declared the winner of the senatorial election, but Giwa and Zi disputed the decision of the National/State Election Petitions Tribunal in Jos, Plateau State.
Since the PDP lacked organization, they claimed, Mwadkwon lacked the necessary credentials to run for office.
Justice E. Daudu, reading the lead judgment, found that 12 local government areas had not participated in the aforementioned party congress, and so the PDP had not complied properly with the High Court ruling.
Regarding the matter at hand, the court has reached a final decision.
I agree with the appellants that an order of another court must be protected in order to prevent anarchy.
In my opinion, the third respondent could not have lawfully nominated the second respondent (Mwadkwon) for election because it lacked a valid structure, as the appellant argued.
This court has found that the injunction was not followed, hence the appeal is granted.
The Plateau North senatorial election must be rescheduled within 90 days, Daudu decided.