Supreme Court reserves judgement in Plateau governorship appeal

The Supreme Court has reserved judgement in the appeal filed by the Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang, seeking to overturn the verdict of the Court of Appeal which nullified his election.

A five-member panel of justices led by Justice John Okoro reserved judgement after hearing arguments from parties for and against the appeal.

The governor through his counsel, Kanu Agabi, prayed the court to uphold the judgement of the Tribunal and set aside the judgment of the appellate court because the respondents have no right to question how a party elects its state executives.

He said the respondents (Nentawe Goshwe and the All Progressives Congress) cannot plead that the governor did not score the number of lawful votes ascribed to him and at the same time say the election was invalid.

The APC and its candidate, on their part, argued that Mutfwang’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is in disobedience of a valid court order that directed them to conduct congress in 17 local governments but only conducted in five before going into the March governorship election.