The National and State Assembly election petitions tribunal sitting in Jos, Plateau State on Friday sacked the speaker of the state’s House of Assembly, Moses Sule.
Mr Sule, who represents Mikang constituency, was sacked alongside another state legislator, Danjuma Azi, the representative of Jos North West constituency.
The sacked lawmakers are members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
The tribunal ruled that a former majority leader of the house, Naanlong Daniel, and Mark Na’ah, all of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are the winners of the 18 March election.
The petitioners had challenged the sponsorship of the Messrs Sule and Azi on the ground that the PDP was not qualified to participate in the election.
Delivering the judgment, the lead judge, Muhammad Tukur, said the PDP was not qualified to sponsor the respondents for the election because the party doesn’t have a structure. He said nothing can stand on nothing.
The tribunal said the petitioners have the right to challenge the sponsorship of the PDP lawmakers.
He dismissed the preliminary objections filed by the respondents for the court not to entertain the matter.
The tribunal further held that as at the time of the election, PDP had no valid structure to sponsor a candidate as the party was still in disobedience of an order of a Plateau State High Court delivered on 26 November 2020 which ordered the party to conduct ward congresses.
Judge, Tukur said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had failed to tender any authentic document that showed there was a repeated congress by the party in 2021, as claimed by the respondents.
On Thursday, the Tukur led panel also dismissed two PDP lawmakers of the state assembly.
The tribunal has so far sacked 10 PDP lawmakers, including House of Representatives members and a senator on the same grounds.
The two election tribunal panels in the state have given conflicting rulings on the matter.
While the Muhammad Tukur-led panel ruled that the PDP’s failure to hold ward congresses meant it was ineligible to present candidates for the election, the Williams Rotimi-led panel held that the PDP is qualified to sponsor candidates because the issue of party structure is a pre-election matter.
The losing parties can appeal the ruling of the tribunal at the Court of Appeal.
