Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang had urged the Supreme Court to nullify the judgement of the Court of Appeal, which sacked him from office.
The governor, who made this request in his appeal filed before the apex court by an eight-man team of Senior Advocates of Nigeria(SANs), led by Chief Kanu Agabi, accused the lower court of not giving his and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), fair hearing.
A three-man panel of the Court of Appeal led by Justice Elfrieda Williams-Dawodu had on November 19, 2023 nullified the election of Governor Mutfwang and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue a Certificate of Return to the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Nentawe Goshwe.
The appellate court held that the appeal brought by Goshwe was valid as the qualification issue was both a pre and post-election matter under Section 177(c) of the Nigerian Constitution and Sections 80 and 82 of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Dissatisfied with the judgement, the governor formulated eight grounds of appeal on why the Supreme Court should validate his election.
He argued that the issue of nomination and sponsorship, which underpinned Ground One of the petition by the APC, is not only a pre-election matter but within the internal affairs of the fourth Respondent (PDP), and as such the first and second Respondents lacked the locus standi to canvass it.
The appellant also argued that the judgment of the lower court delivered on November 19, 2023 is fatally flawed for want of jurisdiction regarding Section 285(2) of the Constitution (supra).
He insisted that disobedience of court order is not one of the grounds for maintaining an election petition under Section 134 of the Electoral Act (supra), nor is it part of Section 177(c) of the Constitution (supra), let alone disqualifying the appellant from contesting the election.
The governor further maintained that given the overwhelming oral and documentary evidence, including but not limited to EXHIBITS U and 2RA3, the fourth Respondent complied with EXHIBIT G1 by conducting a state congress on September 25, 2021, in Plateau State.
He also contended that the evidence of the 16th prosecution witness was thoroughly discredited and controverted, as such, the lower court was wrong to heavily rely on it against him.
“The first and second respondents woefully failed to discharge the requisite burden of proof on them and, as such, not entitled to the reliefs sought in their petition, more so that having impugned the election as invalid for non-compliance, it is absurd of them to lay claim to victory for the same election.
“The lower court was in grave error when it held that the Tribunal was wrong in striking out the offensive paragraphs of appellant’s reply and utilising evidence of PW16, PW24, PW27 and PW28 as a tribunal of first instance.
“The lower court denied fair hearing to the appellant by dismissing his notice of preliminary objection as well as motion to strike out certain grounds of the notice of appeal of the 1st and 2nd Respondents without properly considering the same,” he stated.
Mutfwang has, therefore, argued through his lawyers that he had shown in his brief that, for all intents and purposes, the judgment of the lower court had occasioned injustice of unquantifiable magnitude to him.
He also maintained that the law is settled that wherever there is a wrong, there must be a remedy, and that this principle of law, which is of considerable antiquity, is expressed in the Latin maxim, ubi jus, ibi remedium.
“We therefore most respectfully urge the court to allow the appeal, set aside the judgment of the lower court and thereupon affirm the appellant as the duly elected governor of Plateau State,” the governor stated.
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