SAN FRANCISCO, February 28, (THEWILL) – The Kogi State High Court sitting in Lokoja has ruled that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had no candidate in the November 16, 2019 governorship election in the state.
Justice John Olorunfemi of the High Court 4, in a ruling declared that the party primary conducted on September 3, 2019, which produced Mr. Musa Wada as the PDP candidate was fraught with irregularities, such that an hour-long downpour and sporadic gunshots, which led to the delegates scampering for safety, cannot be said to be fair enough to produce a candidate.
The ruling was in a pre-election matter filed by the eldest son of a former governor of the state, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, Mr. Abubakar Idris, challenging the candidature of Wada, a younger brother of another former governor of the state, Capt. Idris Wada, as the PDP candidate in the November 16, 2019 governorship election.
According to the judge: “Neither the claimant, Alhaji Abubakar Idris nor the defendant, Mr. Musa Wada, can lay claim to be the authentic flagbearer of the PDP, since the primary was inconclusive”.
He pointed out that the claimant who averred that he would have won the primary conducted by the 1st defendant, if the missing votes, which belonged to him were added to his votes, could not convince the court to deliver judgment in his favour.
Justice Olorunfemi further submitted that the second defendant could not convince the court that he actually won the party primary, which was marred by rancour and acrimony, arising from pandemonium, due to sporadic gunshots, that compelled the participants to scamper for safety
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