Why Appeal Court Sacked Senate Minority Leader on Sunday

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Sunday nullified the election  of the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Simon Mwadkwon.

Senator Mwadkwon was sacked on the ground that his party, The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) failed to comply with the electoral act by not conducting primary elections in 12 local government of the state before sponsoring his election.

The ruling was sequel to the appeals filed by the  Chris Giwa, the senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart,  Gyang Zi.

Ruling of the appeal, the Chairman of the panel, Justice E. Daudu, held that the PDP failed to fully comply with the High Court order as 12 local government areas didn’t participate in the said party congress.

The ruling reads in part:

“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.”

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