A State High Court in Jos, presided over by Justice Ishaku Kunda, had on 29th September, 2021 dismissed a suit filed by the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), challenging the decision of the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC), which had excluded the party from participating in the local government council polls.
The judgement on the matter, upheld PLASIEC’s decision, and said the suit by PDP lacked substance, because the party could not abide by the guidelines of the commission in participating in the elections.
Hon. Suleiman Yahaya Kwande, a former member of the National Assembly representing Jos North/Bassa, has reacted to the exclusion of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from Plateau State Local Government elections, stating the PDP, not the APC, was to blame.
“It wasn’t our fault; they shot themselves in the leg, It was a member of the PDP who took the party to court. We didn’t go to court with them, If they had reached an out-of-court settlement…It occurred to us in Zamfara, when a member of the APC filed a lawsuit against the party.
We won the governorship, the senate, and all members of the House of Representatives and House of Assembly, but we lost in court when one of our members sued us.
So it’s not our fault; it’s theirs,” Kwande explained.
As a result, the politician, who is seeking re-election to the House of Representatives, told the opposition to “just brace yourself and give us a good fight.”
“We are ready for them! We are not scared of the opposition. We have done a good job and I am confident our party would win,” he added.
He, however, urged successful candidates in his party to emulate the “good performance” of the President and governor in order to better the fortunes of the party and restore confidence in the state.
“There’s a lot of voters apathy, lots of voters disharmony and I think the party has lost a lot of ground. But it is up to them to see that the party gains ground before the general election in 2023,” Kwande further stated.
Kunda maintained that PLASIEC has the right to have refused PDP nomination and expression of interest forms for the said election; stressing that the PDP erred for not having followed the instructions.
The judge sighted the judgement of SP Gang of November 20th, 2020, which ordered the party to conduct state congress, the party went ahead to evoke sections of its constitution and dissolved the state EXCO and constituted a caretaker committee which conducted its primaries that produced the candidates which PLASIEC refused to issue forms.
In the circumstances, the judge held that all the steps and actions taken by the caretaker committee of PDP, including the conduct of the said primary elections was null and void.
“The entire claims in the submission of the claimant is hereby dismissed,” the Judge stated.
Furthermore, the PDP went to the Court of Appeal, in Jos, seeking an injunction to stop the conduct of the polls, but the court denied them the request, saying since the tenure of the elected officials at the local government had elapsed, a vacuum cannot be created.
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