S’Court affirms Agbu as Taraba PDP guber candidate
The Supreme Court, yesterday, affirmed Col. Kefas Agbu (rtd.) as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Taraba State for the March 11 governorship election.
In a judgment, the apex court upheld the decision of Court of Appeal sitting in Yola, the Adamawa State capital that dismissed two different suits challenging the eligibility of Agbu as candidate of the party in the state.
According to Justice Emmanuel Agim, the appellants (Prof. Jerome Nyameh) acted in breach of Section 84 and 87(9) of the Electoral Act by failing to make use of the primary election dispute mechanism as contained in the party’s guidelines.
The apex court said both appeals were deemed premature and lacking in merit as they were instituted without exploring the internal party options to seek redress before heading to court.
The court further stated that failure of the appellants to include other aspirants, who took part in the primary at the early stages of the trial, robbed them of rights to fair hearing.
Justice Agim dismissed the appeal for being incompetent Recall that the Yola division of the Court of Appeal had affirmed Mr. Agbu as the governorship candidate of the PDP in Taraba.
The three-man panel of justices dismissed the appeal brought by Prof. Jerome Nyameh challenging the ruling of the Federal High Court, Jalingo, which earlier upheld the primary election that produced Agbu as PDP governorship candidate in the state.
In another judgment by the Appeal Court in the suit filed by another governorship aspirants, Mr. Hilkiah Bubajoda Mafindi, the court also affirmed Agbu as the PDP governorship candidate and dismissed the appeal brought by the appellant.
Not comfortable with the appellate court’s decision, Prof. Jerome Nyameh, who believed that his case had merit, immediately proceeded to the apex court, calling for the disqualification of the party’s governorship on the grounds that Agbu did not purchase the expression of interest and nomination forms of the party.
Nyameh claimed that the candidate was the party chairman and wants the court to restrain him from contesting for the governorship position of the state on the platform of the PDP come 2023.
The affirmation of Mr. Agbu as PDP candidate by the court has now put to rest the wrangling between an aggrieved guber aspirant, Nyameh and the party’s candidate as well as the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Speaking in an interview with journalists, Agbu expressed happiness with the Supreme Court judgment and promised to work for the development of the state.
