Amid concerns over the use of pre-election matters to remove National Assembly members from Plateau State, anxiety is growing that the move may be connected towards also using the judiciary to axe Plateau State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang.
Sources privy to the inner workings of the panel told our correspondent that, baring any unforeseen circumstances, the court is set to upturn the verdict of the election tribunal that upheld the electoral victory of the PDP in the 2023 governorship poll in Plateau State on account of pre-election matters.
The orchestrated plot to annul the result of the governorship election may not be unconnected with the subtle plot to sack the overwhelming majority of the PDP and replace them with candidates of the APC as winners of the elections on the plateau.
Just this week, the Appeal Court sacked Reps Beni Lar, Dachung Bagos and also upturned the victory of Senator Napoleon Bali in the election and gave victory to former governor Simon Bako Lalong who was second in the Plateau South Senatorial election.
According to a source, “These verdicts by Court of Appeal are not coincidence but deliberate moves at swinging the pendulum of victory to the APC that has sworn to take over the state. Sacking the governor as being presently plotted will turn out to be the icing on the cake”.
Despite hues and cries from various sections of the Nigerian society over the deployment of pre-election matters as a basis for nullifying the outcome of the polls, the Appeal Court justices have continued to run against the rules which outlaw such.
Protest by the PDP and other civil society stakeholders that it is only in Plateau that pre-election matters are being dug up to determine election petitions have been swept aside.
The controversy has been deepened with many eyes looking to the president of the Court of Appeal, Hon Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem in the judicial melee. Justice Dongban-Mensem is from the same ethnic group with Lalong but she has not been directly accused of instigating the judgments.
Following this week’s sacking of some PDP members of the National Assembly, protest erupted in Jos, the Plateau State capital, with protesters calling on the judiciary to desist henceforth from the use of pre-election matters to determine outcome of elections.
A protester who identified himself as Godwin Pam said it is clear that the APC is on a mission of recovering through the backdoor what they lost through the ballot.
“We’re aware that the APC is on a mission. If the people don’t wake up and oppose what we are seeing, the governor may be sacked on account of pre-election matters. Some top APC chieftains have sworn to even the scores, and the result of the court verdicts so far announced shows that they are not resting on their oars. Something should be done fast to stop attempts at dragging the judiciary in the mud”, the source added.
Earlier, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA had at a press conference last Sunday, deplored what it called the rigging of election petition judgments in favour of the APC.
Addressing a press conference on Sunday in Abuja, HURIWA’s national coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said recent events in Plateau have cast a shadow of doubt and suspicion over the integrity of the judiciary.
HURIWA particularly raised concerns over what it described as the “rigging” of election judgments to give the advantage to the APC.
“These concerns go beyond post-election matters and extend to pre-election cases, which, according to established legal precedent, should not be revisited at the appellate level,” the group said.
Speaking on the issue, Dachung Bagos who was sacked as member of the House of Representatives representing Jos South and Jos East in his response said:
“It was like a military coup that happened on the Plateau. From the reaction you have seen on the streets sacking seven National Assembly members through the courts and all of them from the PDP. These are people that none of them won our election with less than 50,000 votes. The difference between me and the first runner up was 65,000.”
