Four Civil Society Organizations have requested that the National Judicial Council look into the Plateau State election matter involving the justices and Monica Dongban-Mensem, the head of the Appeal Court.
Oluwayemisi Williams-Dawodu, Abdulaziz Waziri, and Okon Abang are the justices; they are all Court of Appeal justices.
At the appellate court, sixteen legislators who ran in the state’s 2023 elections under the Peoples Democratic Party platform were fired.
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The PDP’s refusal to follow a court order for it to hold ward and local government congresses prior to nominating its candidates for the various elective positions served as the foundation for the court’s ruling.
Caleb Muftwang, the state’s governor, was fired for the same reason until he was reinstated by the supreme Court.
However, the appeal court’s verdict was criticized by the supreme court, which labeled it as erroneous.
Speaking to State House correspondents on Friday following a courtesy visit to President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja, Muftwang said he was looking into both legal and political options to resolve the ongoing drama surrounding the Appeal Court’s dismissal of PDP lawmakers from the state House of Assembly due to pre-election issues.
In a petition seen by our correspondent on Friday, the CSOs, going by the name “Open Justice Alliance,” said that the justices’ conduct went against accepted legal standards.
According to a portion of the petition, “The rulings rendered by the Court of Appeal, presided over by the aforementioned justices, which led to the dismissal of more than sixteen PDP candidates who took part in the Plateau State polls in 2023 are especially unsettling because they go against established legal doctrines, such as the precedent set by the Supreme Court regarding the non-justiciability of matters pertaining to political party nominees.
The Open Justice Alliance requests a quick and comprehensive investigation into the involved justices’ behavior in light of these worries. The alliance requests an assessment of the appropriateness of their actions and, in the event that guilt is proven, demands the imposition of suitable punishments.