Kogi Guber: Appeal court to deliver judgment on PDP candidacy today
An Appeal Court sitting in Abuja, would today, Tuesday, 21st April 2020, deliver judgment on who is the rightful candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the last November 16, 2019 Governorship Election in Kogi State.
This was confirmed by the State Publicity Secretary of PDP, Mr .Bode Ogunmola while fielding question from journalist in Lokoja, Tuesday morning.
A Lokoja High Court had in February nullified the PDP primary election, insisting that the party has no governorship candidate for the November 16 Election.
Justice John Olorunfemi, who faulted the Party’s Governorship Primaries held on 3rd September, 2019, said the process of the primary conducted by the opposition party in the state was hasty and inconclusive.
It was gathered that the ruling by the State High Court prompted the warring factions in the case to head to the Appeal Court, Abuja Division.
It would be recalled that the party’s main challenger and runner up at the party’s primary, Abubakar Ibrahim had dragged the party flag bearer Engr. Musa Wada to a Kogi State High court for allegedly smuggling 600 votes to pick the party’s ticket for the polls.
At the last sitting of the Appeal Court, Abuja, Counsel to Abubakar Ibrahim, Otaru Otaru, SAN, urged the court to set aside the ruling of the Lokoja High Court, describing the ruling as neither here nor there.
Otaru SAN, said that the ruling of the Lokoja High Court overran the runway, insisting that the ruling granted prayers that were never pleaded by the petitioner.
In his submission, J.S. Okutepa, SAN, counsel to Engr. Musa Wada, winner of the PDP ticket, also described the ruling by the Lokoja High Court as a surprise, insisting that the ruling failed to meet the expectations of the winner.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria described the September 3rd PDP primaries held at the Confluence Stadium Lokoja, as free, fair and credible, stressing that the allegations as raised by the petitioner was a characteristic of an average Nigerian politician who cries foul after losing in an election.
