The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, upheld the nomination of Patrick Dakum as Labour Party governorship candidate for Plateau State.
The governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections hold on Saturday, 18 March.
An aggrieved aspirant for the LP governorship ticket, Yohanna Margif, had challenged Mr Dakum’s candidacy.
But a five-member panel of the Supreme Court led by John Okoro struck out Mr Margif’s appeal on the grounds that the suit was statute-barred following its withdrawal by Mr Margif’s lawyer, Opeyemi Ojo.
Mr Ojo had prayed the panel to invoke Section 22 of the Supreme Court Act to hear and determine the dispute in the interest of justice.
But refusing Mr Ojo’s request, the panel said the conditions precedent for the court to invoke section 22 of the Supreme Court Act were not met.
It informed Mr Ojo that both the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court no longer had jurisdiction that can be invoked by the Supreme Court since the time for the matter to be heard had expired.
Pre-election cases are statutorily required to be heard and determined within 180 days beginning from the time such a suit is filed at the Federal High Court to its terminal point at the Supreme Court.
Faced with the reality of his late filing, Mr Ojo announced the withdrawal of his appeal which was subsequently struck by Mr Okoro.
Background
Mr Margif in his appeal challenged Mr Dakum’s nomination as LP’s governorship flag bearer in Plateau State.
The appellant insisted that he (Mr Margif) won the governorship primary election of the party.
But the Labour Party in its defence argued that Mr Margif in a letter voluntarily withdrew his candidacy from the contest.
The party said following Mr Margif’s withdrawal from the race, a fresh primary election was held in which Mr Dakum won and his name was forwarded to INEC.
Mr Margif began the suit at the Federal High Court in Jos, but he lost as the court upheld the position of LP and declared Mr Dakum as the duly nominated governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Plateau State.
The trial judge, Dorcas Agishi, in her judgement on 9 December 2022, upheld Mr Dakum’s candidacy.
The judge said the Labour Party complied with its guidelines in the conduct of the primary election that produced Mr Dakum.
Ms Agishi noted that the plaintiff, Mr Margif, in an affidavit, withdrew voluntarily as the governorship candidate of the party which compelled the party to conduct a fresh primary that produced Mr Dakum.
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Dissatisfied with the Federal High Court decision, Mr Margif approached the Court of Appeal but lost, and subsequently moved to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court’s verdict on Wednesday puts an end to the Labour Party governorship candidate dispute.
