Eligibility: Court upholds Dariye’s election as PDP candidate

A Jos Federal High Court on Friday upheld the participation and election of Senator Joshua Dariye as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for Plateau Central Senatorial District in the December 7 party primaries.
Mr Alexander Mwolwus, former Special Adviser (SA) to former Governor Jonah Jang had challenged in court the eligibility of Dariye in taking part in the PDP senatorial primaries held in Pankshin.
Dariye had left the Labour Party (LP) and joined PDP where he won the primaries after beating five other aspirants, including Mwolwus.
In his affidavit, through his counsel, J.S. Iliya, Mwolwus prayed the court to quash the election of Dariye at the primaries on the ground that he was not formally re-absorbed but was granted waiver by the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) in Abuja.
According to him, the state party leadership did not recognise Dariye as a member of the party until the waiver that came shortly before the primaries.
But Dariye, through his counsel, Mr Garba Pwul (SAN), had asked the court to strike out the case for lack of merit, arguing that only a political party has the power to choose its candidates for any election.
Justice Ambrose Allagoa, in his judgement, said after careful consideration of the arguments put by the counsel in the case, faulted the approach of Mwolwus to the case.
“The Plaintiff didn’t approach or exhaust the internal mechanism of the party before challenging the election of the defendant (Dariye) in court, ‘’ he said.
He said that by Section 21 (6) the power to choose a candidate for any election rest only with the political party and not an individual; therefore the plaintiff has failed to prove his case.
Allagoah then declared that “the case is hereby dismissed for lack of merit’’.
Speaking shortly after the judgment, Pwul described the verdict as a victory to democracy as “it is a thought judgment brilliantly passed’’.
Iliya in his response said that they would study the judgement closely before taking any decision.