Appeal court sacks Senate minority leader, Simon Mwadkwon; orders fresh election in Plateau North

The Abuja division of the Court of Appeal has nullified the victory of the Senate Minority Leader, Simon Mwadkwon, in the February 25 Plateau North senatorial election.

This was as the Appeal Court ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct a fresh election within 90 days. The court gave the ruling on the appeals 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 National/State Election Petitions Tribunal in Jos, Plateau State, which earlier affirmed Mwadkwon of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the rightful winner of the senatorial poll.
They argued that Mwadkwon was not qualified to contest the election because the PDP had no structure.

Reading the lead judgment, Justice E. Daudu, held that the PDP failed to fully comply with the High Court order as 12 local government areas didn’t participate in the said party congress. “The court made total findings with regard to the issue in focus. To avoid anarchy, I agree with the appellants that the court must protect an order of another court. I agree with the appellant that the third respondent 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 first respondent is hereby ordered to conduct another senatorial election in Plateau North within 90 days,” Daudu ruled.