Appeal Court: LP loses Assembly seat in Lagos, gains in Plateau
Court of Appeal in Lagos has reaffirmed the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Amuwo-Odofin II Constituency election in the state, Rauf Age-Suleiman as winner of the March 18 election, as it dismissed the appeal lodged by the Labour Party (LP) flagbearer, Olukayode Doherty.
The Court of Appeal in its judgement, Sunday, upheld an earlier ruling by the State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal which had declared Age-Suleiman as winner.
The independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had earlier declared the LP candidate as winner of the election after collation of the results, however, the APC approached the tribunal challenging the INEC decision.
The tribunal had ordered INEC to present Age-Sulaiman with the certificate of return as the winner of the election.
The court held that the Electoral Act 2022 does not allow a candidate to be declared winner if the candidate did not fully participate in the election process.
Meanwhile, in Plateau State, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, also Sunday, affirmed the sacking of Hon. Rimvjat Nanbol of the Peoples Democratic Party as the lawmaker representing Langtang Central State Constituency.
Nanbol had been sacked from the position by the National and State Houses of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in September.
The tribunal declared Hon. Daniel Ninbol Listic of the Labour Party (LP) as winner of the state constituency election.
However, the PDP Lawmaker approached the appeal court for final redress.
In a unanimous Judgment of a three-man panel of the Court of Appeal read out by Justice Okong Abang, they agreed that the Tribunal was right when it held it had jurisdiction to seat over internal affairs of a political party with regards to non-qualification and issue of sponsorship.
Abang upheld the Tribunal’s finding that the structure of PDP had collapsed after the Plateau State High Court declared in a judgment that the party failed to conduct a valid primary/Congress involving delegates from the 17 LGAs of the state.
“It is my view that without complying with court, there was no party by the name PDP in the election.
“It is a joke taken too far” for a political party to disobey an order of court, Abang held.
The judge explained further that a court of law has jurisdiction to entertain a matter bordering on a political party especially if that party disobeys a subsisting order of a court.
“The appeal lacks merit and is accordingly dismissed. The judgment of the Tribunal is hereby affirmed,” Abang held, adding that the LP candidate remains the lawmaker representing the said Constituency at the Plateau House of Assembly.
