Tribunal rulings expelling Plateau NASS members won’t stand, according to Mwadkwon, the Senate Minority Leader

The tribunal rulings invalidating the election of some National Assembly members in Plateau State have been characterised as weird by Senate Minority Leader Senator Simon Davou Mwadkwon, who is adamant that they would not stand.

In a statement on Friday, Mwadkwon, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senator for the Plateau North Senatorial District, expressed his confidence that the Appellate Court would not uphold any decision that was blatantly at odds with the Supreme Court’s rulings.

In Plateau State, he urged PDP members and supporters to maintain composure, saying that “those currently rejoicing inside their house of lies will face the reality of their self deceit when the Appeal Court takes the right decisions on the tribunal judgements.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling on the PDP lawsuit regarding the nomination of Kashim Shettima as President Bola Tinubu’s running mate in the February 2023 presidential election, according to Senator Mwadkwon, was sufficiently explicit as to who has the right to contest the nomination of political party candidates.

He questioned how and why the tribunal could invalidate the election of duly elected National Assembly members on the grounds that they were invalidly nominated because there was no party structure in the state. He claimed the Supreme Court has made it clear that no political party can challenge the nomination of another political party.

“Even assuming, but not conceding, that the PDP did not have a structure in Plateau State at the time the candidates were nominated, is it the State party structure or the National that nominates candidates,” the Senate Minority Leader continued.

Was not the PDP national body, which has the legal right to nominate candidates for office, in charge of organising the primary elections that produced our candidates? Or is it the responsibility of any other political party organ, other than the national body of the party, to hold primary elections?

But in the case of the PDP in Plateau State, the party dutifully followed Justice S.P. Gang’s ruling and convened a second congress in September 2021. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as mandated by law, faithfully observed this congress.

“Therefore, the Federal High Court’s ruling in the matter of Augustine Timkuk versus PDP, which was given by Justice D. V. Agishi, upheld the congress. In addition, the Court of Appeal in Jos unanimously upheld the PDP’s victory in a judgement rendered on February 11, 2023, by Justices T. Y. Hassan, I. A. Andenyangtso, and O. O. Goodluck.

“One now questions how the tribunal came to the conclusion that there was no party organisation, invalidating the elections of our legitimately elected National Assembly members.

This also takes into account the fact that one of the two panels of the National and State House of Elections Tribunal led by Justice Williams Olamide rejected the justification used by the panel led by Justice Mohammed Tukur to invalidate the elections of our party members in its own rulings.

“Regardless of how the verdicts are viewed, they obviously contradict legal precedence and reasoning, and the Appeal Court will undoubtedly overturn them.

Therefore, with confidence that the people they voluntarily elected will fulfil their campaign pledges, “our people should remain calm.”