PLATEAU: BREAKING: TRIBUNAL STILL NAILS PDP OVER LACK OF STRUCTURE. DISMISSES AMB. G. Y. GOTOM’S PETITION AGAINST SEN. DIKET PLANG

By: Valentine Adese (JP),

The National/State Houses of Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal has dismissed Petition No: EPT/PL/SEN/06/2023, which was filed by Amb. G. Y. Gotom and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), challenging the election of the Plateau Central Senatorial District election conducted by INEC on 25^th February, 2023, and the  victory of Sen. Diket Plang and the All Progressives Congress (APC), for lack of locus.

The Judgment of the Tribunal delivered yesterday by Hon. Justice A. Elekwa, held that, the Plateau State chapter of the PDP cannot sponsor a candidate for any election, as long as, it is still in disobedience to Court Orders, which had directed it to organize a fresh Congress for the party in the state.

Hon. Justice Elekwa said, “Sponsorship is different from Nomination. What the Respondents are challenging is the PDP’s qualification to Sponsor and not the Nomination of its candidate (Gotom).

The Tribunal also held that the Petitioners were unable to substantiate their allegations of noncompliance as they just dumped documents on the Tribunal without calling witnesses to testify on them.

Secondly, the Petitioners were also unable to prove their allegations of over-voting as the Four (4) witnesses they called to testify, told the Tribunal that there was no over-voting when they were confronted with the same results by Counsels to the Respondents.

According to the Tribunal, “Even the issue of alteration and manipulation were not proven as the documents tendered though had some cancellations on it, they were readable”.

The Tribunal held that Prof. Dabi had no powers to cancel election results from Kanam Local Government Area of Plateau State, as he is not one of the persons empowered by Law to do so.

Adding that, the Committee that reviewed the election of Plateau Central District must have considered the results of the IRev and reached a conclusion, since the results produced from the IRev and tendered are legible and acceptable like the others also tendered.

The Tribunal held that from the calculations made, Sen. Diket Plang scored the majority of the Lawful votes cast at the election for Plateau Central Senatorial District and therefore his return as declared by INEC is affirmed.