By Femi Ogunsola
A former House of Representatives member, Isaac Kwallu (PDP-Plateau), whose election was recently nullified by the Court of Appeal has vowed to reclaim his seat from the incumbent in 2027.
Kwallu, who represented Shendam, Qua’an-Pan, Mikang federal constituency, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
The former lawmaker described the court’s annulment of his victory as a “monumental travesty of justice,” which is against the will of God and his constituents.
“As far as I am concerned, and in the eyes of my constituents, the mandate still belongs to me.
“If I am alive in 2027 and I contest the election, I can assure you that I’ll retrieve my stolen ‘Divine Mandate’ because I’ll win again and again if the election were to be conducted 1,000 times!
“I won the February election with a landslide by beating the APC incumbent with a total vote difference of over 31,000.
“I defeated him in all the three local governments that make up the constituency; I also floored him in 31 out of the 32 federal wards, including his own ward.
“I also defeated him at the election petition tribunal but, strangely, the Court of Appeal, controversially and suspiciously, subverted the will of the people on spurious ground.
“That the PDP doesn’t have a legitimate structure in Plateau to nominate candidates for elections, which is absolutely not true,”he said.
He said that the Court of Appeal election petition panel, like the election petition tribunal, which earlier declined jurisdiction in pre-election issues and affirmed his victory, has no jurisdiction or any business to entertain such.
This he said because the Supreme Court had since ruled that only the High Court has jurisdiction to entertain pre-election matters.
He, however, said that it was not too late to remedy the situation and called on the National Judicial Council (NJC) to urgently intervene and right the wrongs of the Appeal Court by reviewing the judgements.
“The judgments have eroded the people’s confidence in the nation’s judiciary, in addition to encouraging voter apathy among the electorate.
“Right now, because of the perceived injustice done to us, the people are mourning those who have died of heart attack and those who died from the crisis that ensued.
“Anarchy also looms large across the entire Plateau as people are still protesting in the state and even in Abuja, which is unprecedented.
“Look, you cannot convince the electorate that natural justice is done in a glaring case, where someone who lost election in all the three local governments in the entire constituency, losing in 31 out of 32 wards, is now foisted on them by judicial fiat.
“It is very sad, shocking, painful and unfortunate that, in spite the well established jurisprudence on pre-election matters, the Appeal Court decided to side-track, neglect, and jettison over thirty established judicial precedents, which have already been clearly and explicitly settled by the Supreme Court,” he said.
Kwallu was a former Chairman of Quaan-Pan Local Government Area of Plateau on APC’s platform before defecting to PDP to run for the Reps seat after he was illegally removed from office,
Hr said that he aligned himself with the public insinuations of alleged judicial compromise against PDP in the controversial judgements.
“You cannot blame people from making such insinuations, especially with the plethora of conflicting judgments on similar cases, facts and grounds, right from the tribunals to the appellate court.
It is very dangerous and worrisome when the society begins to perceive justice as being unjustly obtained from the prisms of some partisan and parochial mundane interests and considerations.
“Sen. Adamu Bulkachuwa during a valecdictory session mentiined how he influenced Court of Appeal judgments in the past for his political friends through his wife, a former President of the Court, as well as retired Supreme Court’s Justice Dattijo Muhammad’s comments.
“The comments by the two knowledgeable personalities has further reinforced the allegations of compromise,” Kwallu added.
He insisted that PDP has a solid structure in Plateau and produced legitimate candidates for the 2023 elections.
Kwallu said tbe party also complied with a court order and conducted congresses in September, 2021, which was monitored by INEC with video evidence available.
Kwallu described the judgment as a “politico-judicial” ambush, which ripple effect would bastardize Nigeria’s jurisprudence if it is not immediately corrected by the Supreme Court.
He said that it would remain as one of the judicial wonders of the world.(NAN)
