Tension In Plateau As Appeal Court Returns Lalong To Senate Using Pre-Election Dispute

The Appeal court sitting in Abuja, on Tuesday, affirmed the minister of Labour and Employment and former governor of Plateau state, Barrister Simon Bako Lalong, as senator representing Plateau South senatorial district.

The Appeal court decision struck out the appeal of Senator Napoleon Bali of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP whose election in February had been annulled by the National Assembly election tribunal upon the claim that the PDP was not qualified to have contested the election.

Bali had polled 148,844 votes to defeat Lalong of APC with 91,674 votes in the February 25 election.

However, despite the margin of more than 55,000 votes the Appeal Court ruled that the PDP was not qualified to have fielded candidates in the election.

The National and State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal had earlier declared former governor Lalong winner of February 25, election on the ground that the PDP didn’t have valid structure.

The court held that the party disobeyed court order to conduct congresses at the word, LGA and state levels, sine 2021, and therefore was not qualified to sponsor candidates in an election

The Appeal court panel led by Justice E.O Williams-Daeoud, held that the tribunal was right to declare the APC candidate as winner of the election, adding that the appeal court had made it’s findings and had found that the whole exercise of the congresses by PDP was a nullity.

The chairman of the panel said there were previous rulings that PDP should conduct congresses but the PDP had refused to obey court orders, emphasizing that all court orders were supposed to be obeyed by all.

“Plateau has 17 LGAs that should be used for all issues but 12 LGAs were excluded in PDP congress. Can the elected excos to be said to be a valid Exco?”

“The tribunal cannot say that PDP conducted a repeat Congress. Napoleon is not qualified to be sponsored by PDP to run in that election. All votes by napoleon are void and wasted votes,” the court ruled.

However, GWG.ng reports that the use of the pre-election case to remove the senator and award victory to Lalong has raised tension on the plateau and in concerned quarters in the judiciary.

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