Is Plateau PDP going the Zamfara 2019 way?

Days after the declaration of the Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidate in Plateau as governor-elect, the issue of his qualification and that of other PDP candidates who contested for various seats in the 2023 general elections continue to dominate the political discourse in the state. Lawyers and other interested citizens are debating whether the election […]

Days after the declaration of the Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship candidate in Plateau as governor-elect, the issue of his qualification and that of other PDP candidates who contested for various seats in the 2023 general elections continue to dominate the political discourse in the state.

Lawyers and other interested citizens are debating whether the election will stand if their defeated opponents take their case to court.

The PDP governorship candidate, Caleb Mutfwang, was declared the winner of the gubernatorial election. He defeated his closest rival, Nentawe Yilwatda of the APC. PDP also won two out of the three senatorial districts, six out of the eight seats in the House of Representatives, and 16 out of the 24  House of Assembly seats.

However, aggrieved APC candidates have already filed cases challenging the elections at the state election tribunal.

The tribunal has so far received 16 petitions, including that of the APC governorship candidate. Part of the grounds of the case include the qualifications of all the PDP candidates in the election.

Political analysts said the PDP candidates’ victories “are hanging in the air” considering the previous judgements that disqualified the party from participating in the last local council elections organised by the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC), and another judgement that sacked a federal lawmaker who won an election on the party’s ticket.

The PDP had last year lost a House of Representatives seat, which was won by Musa Agah, to the PRP’s candidate, Muhammad Alkali, when the latter challenged the qualification of the party to participate in the bye-election held on February 2022.

The petitioner challenged the victory of his opponent based on the judgements by three different courts that declared that the PDP had no structure in the state and, therefore, was not qualified to sponsor any candidate.

The PDP’s predicament in the state originated in 2020 when the party was divided into two factions with former governor Jonah Jang and retired Lt-Gen. Jeremiah Useni leading different sides.

At its congress in 2020, the party produced the current executive of the party, led by Chris Hassan, which belongs to the Jang faction, but this was rejected by the Useni camp, which claimed that the Electoral Act and the guidelines of the party were not complied with. Following this, a chieftain of the party, Bitrus Kaze, from Useni’s camp, challenged the outcome of the congress.

Kaze and other members of the PDP approached a Plateau State High Court, presided over by Justice S. P. Gang, who ruled that the election for the executive committee of the party did not conform with the provisions of Section 223(1)(a) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, the Electoral Act, and the PDP constitution.

In 2021, the PLASIEC disqualified the PDP from participating in the council election following a petition by Kaze, asking it not to accept the list of candidates submitted by the caretaker committee of the PDP based on the court order.

The PDP appealed the judgement of the high court to the Court of Appeal in Jos, which affirmed the lower court’s decision and asked the party to conduct fresh congresses from the ward level.

Lawyers with knowledge of the case said PDP refused to obey the previous court orders to conduct congresses and subsequently appealed the judgement to the Supreme Court. The appeal was dismissed on December 7, 2022, by the Supreme Court following the party’s failure to file briefs within time and prosecute the matter.

The court struck out the case for want of diligent prosecution under Order 6 Rule 3(2).

In the buildup to the 2023 elections, a committee from the national headquarters of the party was sent to conduct a congress, which produced an ad hoc leadership of the party in the state. This leadership subsequently conducted the primary elections for the various offices.

But political observers say that even as such, the party still disobeyed the court order to conduct the congress, adding that the aggrieved members of the party were abandoned.

Lawyers disagree 

Meanwhile, lawyers who spoke on the issue differed on the status of the PDP candidates who won the various elections. While some believed that the refusal of the party to obey court orders to organise a fresh congress before the 2023 general elections might consume it, some averred that the party was qualified to sponsor candidates in the last elections.

Edward Pwajok (SAN) said the PDP was losing all its seats to the parties that came second in the election because it refused to abide by court orders to conduct congress before the election.

He said: “From the judgement of the Appeal Court, so long as the PDP does not have a structure in Plateau State, it means it cannot sponsor any candidate to any elective office until it obeys the order of Justice Gang. The question is: has PDP conducted any congress? Chris Hassan is the PDP chairman.

“All those who won elections on the platform of the PDP are just wasting their time. It is a matter of a few months. Those who came second would get their mandates back based on this judgement.

“The first ground would be that PDP cannot sponsor any candidate to the National Assembly because they have no candidate. All votes for the PDP would be declared invalid by the time the legal fireworks start at the tribunal.

“They violated Section 65(1)b of the constitution which says nobody is qualified to contest an election unless he is a member of a party and sponsored by that party,’’ he added.

But Polycarp Jatau, another lawyer, disagreed with the position of Pwajok, saying all the candidates of the PDP have qualified to contest the elections based on the 2022 Electoral Act.

He said: “The electoral act says issues of conflict of the leadership of political parties at the state level have no bearing with the nomination of candidates for general elections because it was the national executive of the party that conducted the primary election. The notice given to INEC for the conduct of congresses and the conduct of primary elections is done by the national executive of the party.

“So, whether the party has EXCO at the state level or not, the national executive of the party can and has the power to conduct the congress.

“By Section 44 and Sub-section 14 of the Electoral Act 2022, only an aspirant can challenge the conduct of the primary. The primary was fully monitored by INEC. The state executive with the nomination process,” he explained.

For  Barrister Lawal Ishak, further interpretation of the facts by the court would determine the fate of PDP’s victory in the state. He said: “In this case, you have to look at the constitution of the party. Does the constitution of the party say where the state fails to conduct a congress, the national committee can conduct the congress?

“Secondly, if you look at what triggered the whole thing was that one of the contestants in the congress in the state, Bitrus Kaze, went to court challenging the outcome of the first congress and the court held.

He argued that the congress was invalid, and the court gave an order that  PDP should go and conduct a fresh congress. Non-compliance with the order gave rise to another pronouncement by another court which said anything done by any other organ of the party without complying with the order of the Justice Gang is null and void.

Whatever the PDP is presenting as obedience of the court, is now left for the court to look at it and see if it is fully satisfied or not, “ Ishak added.