Hours after the Supreme Court affirmed him the duly-elected governor of Plateau state, Caleb Mutfwang gave “kudos” to President Bola Tinubu for not interfering in the legal war started by the All Progressives Congress, whose aggrieved candidate refused to concede loss and fought desperately to have him removed from office.
Speaking on Channels TV late Friday, and monitored by the OBSERVERSTIMES Mr Mutfwang said the president of Nigeria, among the world’s most powerful leaders, could have wrongly wielded his presidency power to oppress him out of office and support his partymate, APC’s Nentawe Yilwatda, to become governor but chose not to.
“For African president not to intrude into the political space, we must say kudos to Mr President,” the Plateau governor said on Channels TV. “The Nigerian president is one of the most powerful presidents and if he decides to use his powers wrongly and intrude into the political arena, it could unsettle a lot of things.”
He acknowledged that the ruling on Friday was clear evidence that Mr Tinubu held no sway over the judiciary, which ruled based on the law and their conscience.
“But today, I believe, he allowed their lordships to their work and they did it according to the dictates of conscience and according to law and I’m proud of them.”
The Supreme Court had tossed out the ruling of a lower court that overturned Mr Mutfwang’s victory on the grounds that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did not obey a subsisting order to hold fresh congresses before conducting primary elections for the 2023 polls.
The appellate court said the PDP’s disobedience to the court order was tantamount to the invalidation of Mr Mutfwang’s emergence as the party’s candidate.
But Justice Emmanuel Agim, who delivered the lead judgement, stated that the Court of Appeal had no jurisdiction to entertain the matter, rhetorically asking whether they( tribunal and appeal court) could “determine the validity of the nomination of a candidate”
Helen Ogunwumiju, a member of the panel of five justices, said the appellate court “was wrong to go into the issue of party congresses. To make matters worse, the party challenging the issue is another political party.”
Mr Mutfwang had won the first round of battle at the Plateau state elections petitions tribunal but lost at the Court of Appeal to his APC opponent. But the Supreme Court verdict on Friday vindicated him and restored his victory.