The Supreme Court has set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal sacking Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State.
The court, in a judgment on Friday, upheld the appeal filed by Muftwang on the ground that it was meritorious.
In the lead judgment, Justice Emmanuel Agim, the court affirmed the judgment of the election tribunal which had dismissed the petition by the APC and its candidate.
Justice Agim held that Muftwang was qualified to contest the election because the primary election that produced him was well conducted by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the PDP.
The court held that the tribunal lacked the jurisdiction to hear the petition that queried the nomination and sponsorship of Mutfwang and that the APC, not being a member of the PDP lacked the right to challenge the way it got its candidate.
He held that there was no evidence that the PDP disobeyed an order issued by the Plateau State High Court ordering fresh congresses for the constitution of the state executive committee of the party.
Similarly, the apex court on Friday upheld the election of Francis Nwifuru as the Governor of Ebonyi State.
Justice Tijjani Abubakar, who delivered the judgment, dismissed the appeal by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Chukwuma Odii.
Justice Abubakar described the appeal as lacking in merit
The Court of Appeal in Lagos had earlier affirmed the election of Nwifuru as the duly elected Governor of Ebonyi State.
In a unanimous decision, the three-member panel led by Justice Jummai Sankey dismissed the appeal filed by Chukwuma Odii of the PDP.
The panel also resolved all five issues raised against the appellant and dismissed the appeal for lacking merit.
Justice Sankey held that the PDP and its candidates lacked the legal right to meddle in the internal affairs of the APC as it relates to the nomination of candidates.
The Ebonyi Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja had also upheld the election of Nwifuru as governor.
INEC had declared Nwifuru of the APC as the winner of the 18 March governorship election in the state.
Nwifuru polled 199,131votes to defeat his closest challenger, Ifeanyi Odii of the PDP, who garnered 80,191 votes.
Bernard Odoh, came third with 52,189 votes.
Odoh and his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, challenged the declaration of Nwifuru as the elected governor of the state and asked the tribunal to nullify his election on the grounds of alleged certificate forgery and “ineligibility” to stand for the election.
The APGA candidate contended that Nwifuru, at the time of the election, was still a member of the PDP and therefore ineligible to be sponsored for the election by the APC.
Odoh further argued that Nwifuru was not qualified to stand for the election because he allegedly submitted a fake certificate to INEC.
He urged the tribunal to order for a second election between the other two candidates who scored the highest number of votes at the previous election and exclude the governor from taking part in it.
