By Charles Adingupu
The dust generated by the conduct of the general elections is far from being settled as its outcome had created inter party acrimony among members just as different political parties trade banter over stolen mandate. Today, the Election Tribunal and the Court in various states across Nigeria are flooded with petitions by party members who are laying conflicting claims to electoral victory.
However at the last count with the conclusion of the election, the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC still maintain its leading role based on the results declared by electoral Umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, with the PDP remaining stagnant in its opposition lead.
With the Tribunal yet to churn out judgements arising from the avalanche of petitions received, speculations are rife that the PDP may plunge further into a cesspit as the Zamfara state scenario where all the candidates who won elections under the APC were all declared ineligible mainly because the process that led to their Victory at the primary election was fraudulent and faulty. This gave the PDP a smooth drive to victory at the poll.
Similar scenario is about playing out in Plateau State PDP as the process that threw up their candidates to contest the just concluded Governorship and State House of Assembly Elections had been declared faulty. There are fresh concerns that PDP may loose all it’s victory at the Tribunal, leaving the APC as the beneficiary this time.
However trouble started in the Plateau State PDP sometime in 2020 when it conducted a disputed State Congress Elections that led to the emergence of the Honourable Chris Hassan led Exco. The Exco which was believed to be supported by former Governor Jonah Jang was outrightly rejected by the Jeremiah Useni’s PDP Camp which alleged that the conduct of the Congress Elections failed to adhere to the constitution, the Electoral Act and the Guidelines of the Party.
Against this backdrop, Honourable Bitrus Kaze and other PDP members instituted a case against the Party at the High Court, Jos in Plateau State (Re; Suit No: PLD/J304/2020 Between,: Bitrus B. Kaze & 11 ORS V Peoples Democratic Party & 25 ORS) where they sought the Court to order for fresh and proper conduct of another election for the Executive Committee in line with the provisions of the 1999 constitution, the Electoral Act and the PDP constitution.
After an extensive deliberations, Honourable S. P. Gang ruled that a fresh elections be conducted according to the combined provisions of the Nigerian constitution, the Electoral Act and the PDP constitution.
EXCLUSION OF PDP FROM PLATEAU COUNCIL POLL
Rather than comply with the Court ruling, the PDP went ahead to compose Caretaker Committee that nominated candidates for the LG election held 9 October, 2021. This forced Kaze & 11 others to seek justice in the High Court haven failed to compel the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC) to reject the result. This time, Honourable Justice Ishaku Kunda ruled that the PDP was in contempt of Court by refusing to obey the order of Justice Gang.
However with the LG election fast approaching, the PDP dashed to the Court Of Appeal, Jos division, seeking orders of injunction to stop the Elections until their case is heard to enable them participate. The Court Of Appeal refused their prayers, and affirmed the two High Court judgements. This sad development led to the exclusion of the PDP in participating in the council poll in the state, leaving the APC to clinch all the 17 local government chairmanship and 325 Councillorship seats. Apparently dissatisfied with the outcome of the Court Of Appeal, the PDP sought the Supreme Court intervention against PLASIEC to set aside judgement of the Appeal Court.
Jos North/Bassa House Of Reps Bye Election
At completion of the council poll, INEC conducted a bye-election to fill the vacant seat for Jos North Bassa Federal Constituency upon the sudden demise of Honourable Haruna Maitala. Without recourse to resolving the crisis in the party, the PDP under the leadership of it’s disputed chairman, Honourable Chris Hassan conducted primary election for aspirants. A serving member of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Hon. Musa Avia Agah emerged as the party flag bearer. At the conclusion of the democratic exercise, INEC declared PDP ‘s Musa Agah winner.
But the PRP candidate Adamu Muhammad Alkali, otherwise known as Dan London who came second, and aware of the lingering crisis occasioned by the irregularities that threw up the PDP candidate, proceeded to the Tribunal seeking nullification to the election that declared Musa Agah winner. The PRP candidate won the case, and was subsequently declared winner.
PDP Conduct Plateau Primaries For 2023.
The recalcitrant posture of using “Caretaker Committee” under disputed party leadership will cost PDP to loose woefully in the Governorship and State House of Assembly Elections. There are more questions begging for answers as the emergence of Hon. Dakas Shan delegation added any influential value that would help to extricate the Party from the High Court and Appeal Court judgements.
Now who submitted the list of nominated candidates to the National Headquarters and INEC? Who submitted the list of the Party Agents for the PDP during the last General Elections,? Was it Dakas Shan or Chris Hassan? Why did the PDP not participate at the National convention that saw the emergence of Senator Iyorchia Ayu led NWC? Did ever part take in the Presidential primaries that gave Alhaji Atiku Abubakar the ticket?
The Supreme Court As Last Hope.
The only hope of the PDP to battle the judgements of both the High Court and Supreme Court was dashed because they failed to file their appellant’s brief within the time frame, and theirs lackadaisical disposition towards the prosecution of the Appeal, the Supreme Court, on the 7th December, 2022, however dismissed the Appeal for want of diligent prosecution, pursuant to Order 6 Rule,3 (2) of the Rules of that Court. It’s worthy to note that the Appeal was among the 50 Civil Appeals and six political Appeals that were disposed of.
From the foregoing, it’s apparent that the PDP is the architect of its misfortunes as a judgement or order of Court remains valid and subsisting until same is set aside by a Court Of competent jurisdiction.
Under this scenario, its easy to predict the outcome of the Election Petition Tribunals as it begins sitting to hear cases brought before them in Jos. Replay of the Zamfara state scenario is already loading in Plateau State as all PDP Candidates who won or lost may be declared ineligible to have contested the Election. The Zamfara and Plateau States democratic experiences would indeed make an interesting topic in history and political science classes .
