The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has declared that it will reclaim it mandate for the Kaura federal constituency at the tribunal.
According to the PDP the Labour Party (LP) was declared winner because there was malpractices of over voting.
According to the PDP, their candidate Hon Gideon Lukas Gwani have been approached to withdraw the case at the tribunal adding that they will ensure they reclaim their mandate because there was massive over voting in favour of the labour party candidate, Mathew Donatus.
Speaking at a press conference in Kaduna, the Kaura Local Government PDP chairman, Donatus Shamang, said all political parties have a good number of youths supporting there ideologies and their candidates
“Therefore, any party or person who assume that he has the monopoly of support of youths should have a rethink.
As law abiding citizens of Nigeria, we are calling on all the security agents to take note of the threats by Kaura wing of LP. The task of reclaiming our mandate is a party affair and not Hon Gideon Gwani’s.
“PDP have conceded defeat before in Kaura LG because the process was fair and credible. PDP declined to concede defeat after the 25th February, 2023 election because of over-voting and ballot stuffing in some wards. We are urging all PDP faithful to be calm because we have started the process of reclaiming the stolen mandate,” the party said.
“We are here to address the press on a mundane issue that borders on emotion and blackmail rather than fact and reality by the Kaura LGA wing of the Labour Party. It is in public domain that the party in question recently organized a press conference urging people in Kaura LGA to call on our amiable PDP stalwart, Hon. Gideon Lucas Gwani and the party to withdraw the case filed at the post-election tribunal which is about to commence in kaduna any time soon.
“To put the record straight, by virtue of the Nigerian Constitution the mandate belongs to the party and not the candidate. The candidate, Hon. Gwani in context, has used the party as a platform to contest and win elections in multiple political dispensations. In furtherance, this is why the constitution is explicit when it says that, when a candidate decamps to another party, he has to leave the mandate for the party he used to contest and win the election. In this light, it behooves on PDP and not squarely on Hon. Gideon Gwani to pursue and reclaim our mandate, which was stolen through over-voting, ballot stuffing and electoral malfeasance. Why PDP approached the tribunal is because of the countless illegalities and discrepancies by LP agents that eclipsed the 25th February, 2023 House of Representatives election in Kaura LGA.
“If LP and its candidate have no skeleton in their cardboard, why are they scared? If they won the election without tinkering with the process, why are they losing sleep over litigation? A guilty man is often jittery before the law. I feel at this point, it is a moral responsibility for LP to act within the ambit of the law.
“We find it awful to ask PDP and Hon. Gideon Gwani not to seek redress at the court when the election that LP candidate won was maimed by fraudulent activities in some wards. We wish to state further that the call for our candidate to withdraw the suit against LP and its candidate is dead on arrival. The call lacks basis, it is empty as it is devoid of constitutional backing. Moreover, LP in Kaura has a dual tendency, begging for PDP and its candidate to withdraw suit and at the same time insulting and blackmailing our candidate and threatening everyone.
“Worst off is threatening the legal luminary, Samuel Atung SAN (son of the soil) not to defend his client (PDP) in this matter, which shows how naïve, ignorant and airheaded they are. It is foolhardy for LP urchins to think they can threaten anyone into giving up on this matter. For their consumption, anyone that breaches the law or is being recalcitrant against the law, will face the full wrath of the law. He will be dealt with accordingly.
“In their press conference, they presented their “case” as if it is a crime for Gwani to seek justice. For their benefit, the judiciary is part of the electoral process that is why if a party or its candidate is not satisfied with the electoral process or the outcome of an election, the party and the candidate can approach the court. What our party and candidate have done is within the ambit of the Electoral Act and does not need the Kaura wing of LP’s approval to exercise our constitutional right.
“PDP expects that what is good for the goose should be good for the gander. Relatively, if urging our party and its candidate to withdraw the suit filed against Mathew Donatus is good, Kaura LGA wing of LP should have urged their presidential candidate and senatorial candidate, Peter Obi and Mike Ayuba Auta, respectively, to withdraw their suits. You can’t prescribe different drugs to patients suffering the same disease. If it is morally wrong for PDP and Hon. Gwani to reclaim their mandate, it should be morally wrong for the LP duo to do the same.
“As a matter of urgency, we urge the Kaura LGA wing of LP to call on Peter Obi and Mike Ayuba Auta to withdraw their suits just as they did to our party and its candidate, this will go a long way to show how honest they are on peaceful resolution of disputes.
“Again, reclaiming mandates through the court process is not alien to Kaura LG politics. Meanwhile, we can understand that some people are not conversant with the political history of Kaura LGA nor in tune with the prevailing and evolving political issues. Over the years, mandates have been reclaimed and lost at the tribunal by politicians of Kaura extractions. Just 4 years ago, Nehemiah Aso of APC, in 2019, filed a suit challenging the outcome of the House of Representatives election where INEC declared Hon. Gideon Gwani was the winner. In 1991, William Swanta of SDP who won the Chairmanship election in Kaura was removed by the court. Musa Nickaf, Yahaya Silas and Kumai Gwaza in 1991 also saw their mandates won and lost through court verdicts,” the party added.
