The Senate Minority Leader Simon Mwadkwon’s victory in the Plateau North senatorial election on February 25 has been declared invalid by the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
This came as the Appeal Court directed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to hold a new election within 90 days.
The court ruled on appeals brought by Chris Giwa of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Gyang Zi of the Labour Party (LP).
Giwa and Zi had filed an appeal against the decision of the National/State Election Petitions Tribunal in Jos, Plateau State, which had previously declared Mwadkwon of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the genuine victor of the senate election.
They claimed that Mwadkwon was ineligible to run in the election because the PDP lacked organisation.
Justice E. Daudu, who presided over the hearing, said that the PDP failed to fully comply with the High Court’s order as 12 local government areas didn’t sent delegates to the party congress.
“The court made total findings with regard to the issue in focus.
“To avoid anarchy, I agree with the appellants that the court must protect an order of another court.
“I agree with the appellant that the third respondent had no valid structure and could not have claimed to have validly nominated the second respondent (Mwadkwon) for the election.
“Given the findings of this court, the appeal, therefore, succeeds as the court order was not complied with.
“The first respondent is hereby ordered to conduct another senatorial election in Plateau North within 90 days,” the court ruled.
cc: Daily Post Ng
