Plateau gov’ship: Court of Appeal reserves judgement in Gov Mutfwang’s case

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has reserved judgment in the appeal challenging the election of Governor Caleb Mutfwang.

A three-member panel of justices on Saturday reserved the judgement after listening to the arguments of the lawyers in the matter.

The appeal was filed by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Yilwatda Goshwe against Governor Mutfwang and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The Independent National Electoral

Commission (INEC) had declared Mutfwang winner of the March 18 governorship election in the state with 525,299 votes, defeating 17 other candidates, including Goshwe, who polled 481,370 votes.

Not satisfied, Goshwe challenged the election of Mutfwang at the tribunal, claiming that the governor was not validly nominated and sponsored by his party (PDP). He added that the PDP had no structure to sponsor any candidate for the governorship election.

He equally alleged that the election of Mutfwang was not conducted in compliance with the electoral act, and that he did not win the majority of lawful votes cast during the election.

However, a threemember panel of the tribunal headed by Justice R. Irele-Ifijeh, in a unanimous decsion dismissed the petition for lacking in merit.

Not satisfied, the APC candidate further appealed the tribunal’s judgement and asked the appellate court to declare him winner on the grounds that the governor was not qualified to have contested the election because he was not validly sponsored and nominated by the PDP.