By Marie-Therese Nanlong

Jos – An Appeal Court sitting in Jos, Plateau State has upheld a High Court judgment earlier delivered by Justice Ishaku Kunda that Joshua Ubandoma remains the Chairman of Langtang North local government area of the State.

Ubandoma of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP had approached the State High, Jos in 2021 to challenge the conduct of the local government election in his area by the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC) when his tenure had not elapsed and asked that he be allowed to complete his tenure in office.

It would be recalled that PLASIEC and the State Government had declared the said seat vacant and conducted an election in October 2021 to pave way for an All Progressives Congress, APC candidate, Zulfa Rimven to be elected as the Council Chairman.

The High Court ruled that Ubandoma’s tenure had not elapsed at the time of the said election but the defendants appealed the court’s decision.

However, the Appeal Court on Friday dismissed the suit filed by PLASIEC which sought to oust Ubandoma from office, insisting that the High Court was right in its judgment.

Delivering the Judgment, Hon. Justice, Ibrahim Andenyangtso directed that the Council Chairman, Ubandoma be returned to the office to complete his tenure.

In another judgment, Justice Andenyangtso dismissed for lack of merit the appeal filed by the PDP which sought to quash the October 2021 Local Government Election conducted by PLASIEC because the Party was excluded from participating in the said exercise.

Reacting to the judgment, Ubandoma said “I want to thank God for the Judiciary for upholding the rule of law to sustain democracy. I commend the Judges for standing in to save our democracy, the judgment is a victory for democracy, it is a victory for the downtrodden and it is a victory against those who want to oppress the masses. I, therefore, expect compliance from our Governor who is also a lawyer, I have been patient and I will not take the law into my hand…

“Today, the Appeal Court has upheld the judgment of the lower court and I expect the Governor and PLASIEC to comply for the sake of the rule of law and sustaining our democracy.”

Also commenting, the Counsel to PLASIEC, Nantok Dashur said, “On the judgment between PDP and PLASIEC; the Judge of the High Court was affirmed by the Court of Appeal because PDP was challenging PLASIEC for excluding the party from the Council election that took in 2021. The appeal by PDP was dismissed, which means that the Court of Appeal saw that the judgment of the High Court was sound and correct.

“The second judgment was an appeal filed by PLASIEC and Plateau State Government against the judgment of Plateau State High Court which agreed with Joshua Ubandoma that his tenure had not expired as of the time the Local Government Election was conducted. The Court dismissed the appeal of the PLASIEC and the State Government and upheld the judgment of the State High Court that the tenure of Ubandoma has not expired. We will brief our clients and take instructions from them, whatever the next step would be.”