Daniel Bwala, a spokesperson for Atiku Abubakar during the 2023 presidential election, has called for a fair appeal ahead of the judgement in the Ebonyi State Governorship Election case, News About Nigeria reports.
He made the call during an interview on the Politics Today program on Channels television on Monday.
Bwala explained that if the Appeal Court decided that the PDP scored an own goal in Plateau, then it should also be the same for the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Ebonyi State.
This is about the fact that Ifeanyi Odii, the PDP candidate, went to the tribunal asking for the nullification of the election, which declared Francis Nwifuru, an APC candidate, as the governor of Ebonyi State.
The PDP claimed that Nwifuru did not comply with the Electoral Act 2022 and was not qualified to contest as an APC member during the election period because he was still part of the PDP.
However, the Election Petition Tribunal did not accept jurisdiction of Nwifuru’s case, stating that it couldn’t interfere in the party matter and that it should have been tabled down in the Federal High Court before the election.
Bwala revealed that Nwifuru was a candidate of the PDP in Ebonyi State at the time he contested in the governorship election before he joined the APC and became the governor.
He further explained that Nwifuru’s name was on the membership register of the PDP up till the time he was declared the governor of Ebonyi State.
Bwala also mentioned that as a member of the House of Assembly, Nwifuru did inform the house that he had joined the APC. Despite this, in the eyes of the law, the governor was still a member of the PDP at the time he contested.
Bwala raised questions regarding the legality of a candidate belonging to two political parties and contesting an election.
He pointed out that according to the constitution, a candidate must be a member of a political party and must be sponsored by that political party.
Therefore, if the principles of the Court of Appeal judgment in Plateau State are applied, then the Appeal Court regarding the case in Ebonyi State should be predictable unless the Appeal Court wants to contradict itself.
