Appeal Court declines NNPP’s request to sack Taraba’s Gov Agbu Appeal Court declines NNPP’s request to sack Taraba’s Gov Agbu

 

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed the appeal by the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP)and its candidate, Yahaya Sani seeking to sack Taraba Governor, Kefas Agbu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

A three-member panel of the Yola division of the appellate court, which sat in Abuja held, in a judgment delivered on Tuesday night, that the appeal filed by the NNPP and Yahaya was incompetent and without merit.

The court affirmed the September 30 judgment of the trial tribunal, which earlier dismissed the petition by the NNPP and Sani.

Justice Peter Affen, in the lead judgment of the Court of Appeal, held that the appellants failed to prove their case.

Justice Affen resolved all the three issues, identified for determination in the main appeal marked: CA/YL/EP/TR/GV/16/2023 against the appellants.

In an earlier ruling, Justice Affen rejected an application by the appellant for leave to depart from the Rules to compile additional record of appeal.

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He held that the court’s Practice Direction for election case did not allow for extension of time for a party to compile record.

Justice Affen held that the record of appeal compiled by the appellants was incomplete, a development that rendered the appeal incompetent.

In a judgment on the cross-appeals filed by the PDP and Agbu, marked: CA/YL/EP/TR/GV/16A/2023 Justice Affen held that the tribunal was wrong to have rejected  the preliminary objection raised by the cross-appellants before the tribunal.

The preliminary objection had challenged the competence of the petition for containing incongruous prayers and grounds.

Justice Affen allowed the cross-appeals and proceeded to set aside the portion of the tribunal’s judgment, rejecting the cross appellant’s preliminary objection.

Reacting to the rulling 

Gov Agbu Kefas said 

"Today's victory at the Court of Appeal is yet again a demonstration of how the people's will trumps over any other consideration. It's also one for democracy and the victory of light over darkness. I appeal to all of us Taraba state citizens to join hands and lift our people up. We can do more together as one. I congratulate all our Moving Forward team and salute our collectice resolve."