Politics

Appeal Court Nullifies Victory Of Senate Minority Leader, Orders Rerun

October 23, 2023

The Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, has nullified the victory of the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Simon Mwadkwon, who is representing Plateau North- Senatorial District in the National Assembly.

INFORMATION NIGERIA reports that the court ruled that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did not validly nominate Mwadkwon as its candidate and declared his election null and void.

Justice A Williams-Daudu, who read the lead judgment of the appellate court, held that the high court order was not fully complied with by the PDP as 12 LGAs didn’t participate in the said congress.

“To avoid anarchy, I agree with the appellants that the court must protect an order of another court,” she said.

“I agree with the appellant that the third respondent (PDP) had no valid structure and could not have claimed to have validly nominated the second respondent (Mwadkwon) for the election.

“Given the findings of this court, the appeal, therefore, succeeds as the court order was not complied with.

The court also ordered a rerun for the Plateau North Senatorial seat to be conducted in 90 days.

“The first respondent is hereby ordered to conduct another senatorial election in Plateau North within 90 days,” the judge ruled.

The court gave the verdict while ruling on the appeal filed by Chris Giwa of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Gyang Zi of the Labour Party (LP).

Giwa and Zi had appealed against the judgment of the Plateau State Elections Petitions Tribunal in Jos which affirmed Mwadkwon of the PDP as the winner of the senatorial poll.