Plateau gov’ship tribunal: APC closes case as INEC opens defence today

  The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Plateau State, Dr. Nentawe Yilwatda, closed his case at the State Election Petition Tribunal on Friday against Governor Caleb Mutfwang of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which is the first respondent in the case filed by Dr. Nentawe, […]

 

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Plateau State, Dr. Nentawe Yilwatda, closed his case at the State Election Petition Tribunal on Friday against Governor Caleb Mutfwang of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which is the first respondent in the case filed by Dr. Nentawe, has been scheduled to open its defence today.

The APC candidate is challenging the victory of Gov Mutfwang on three grounds: that PDP doesn’t have structure and therefore could not file a candidate for the governorship election; that INEC didn’t comply with the Electoral Act and guidelines as of the time of conducting the election and the exclusion of 14 polling units from Naraguta B Ward in Jos North LGA.

The APC candidate spent three weeks defending his petition before the tribunal.

Before he closed his case on Friday, an expert witness, Nentawe Yusuf, from the University of Jos (Unijos), testified and presented about 200 pages of a report on the 2023 governorship election in Plateau State.

The witness, after the identification of the documents shown to him by the petitioner’s lead counsel, Yakubu Ruba, applied to tender the documents despite the objection by the third respondent, noting that the star witness was vigorously cross-examined by the first, second, and third respondents, being INEC, Mutfwang, and PDP respectively.