From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Supreme Court has affirmed the declaration of Col. Kefas Agbu (retd) as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Taraba State for the forthcoming governorship election.
In a unanimous judgment on Friday, the apex court dismissed the appeal filed by Prof. Jerome Nyameh challengng the May 25, 2022 primary of the party that produced Col. Agbu as its governorship candidate.
The apex court affirmed the judgment of the Yola division of the Court of Appeal that dismissed two different suits challenging the eligibility of Kefas Agbu to contest the governorship primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Taraba state.
The multiple appeals dismissed by the apex court were those by two contenders for the ticket, Hilkiah Buba-Joda and Jerome Nyameh.
Justice Emmanuel Agim, who delivered the judgment of the Supreme Court held that the appellants 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.
In the light of this, 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 apex Court also 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.
Recall that Kefas Agbu at the governorship primary election of the PDP won the contest with 443 votes out of the 517 votes cast.