The Plateau State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Jos on Friday dismissed the petition filed by the Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Nentawe Goshwe against the victory of the Governor of the State, Caleb Mutfwang in governorship election, News About Nigeria reports.
The Court, therefore, affirmed the election of Governor Mutfwang of the PDP.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC had declared Mutfwang the winner of the election after he polled 525,299 votes beating Yiltwatda, who polled 481,370 votes during the March 18 election.
Nentawe had approached the Tribunal challenging the declaration of Mutfwang by INEC as Governor of Plateau State alleging that at the time of the election, Mutfwang was not qualified to contest having not been validly nominated and sponsored by his Party (PDP) as the Party had no structure as at the time of the said election.
In their ruling, the tribunal held that matters related to the nomination and sponsorship of a candidate fall under pre-election matters.
“When the election of INEC relates to activities of a party, no court has jurisdiction to entertain a suit brought by another political party.”
The Court also said that it found no evidence to suggest that the gubernatorial election that produced Mutfwang as Governor violated the law.
The tribunal therefore ruled that the petitions against the Governor were incompetent and lacked merit.
The tribunal had also earlier dismissed the petition filed by the governorship Candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party, Alfred Dabwan against Governor Mutfwang which sought to nullify his victory due to the alleged exclusion of his party’s logo from the ballot by INEC.
