- Justice Williams-Dawodu ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Bali and give a fresh one to Lalong.
- The Court of Appeal had earlier sacked Peoples Democratic Party’s Bali Napoleon and declared Lalong as the Senator for Plateau South Senatorial Zone.
Simon Lalong, the Minister of Labour and Employment, may leave President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet.
This happens when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) provided the Minister with his Certificate of Return.
Remember that Lalong was just proclaimed the senator for the Plateau South senatorial district by the Court of Appeal, who removed Bali Napoleon of the Peoples Democratic Party?
Under the leadership of Justice Williams Daudu, the three-member Appeal Court panel upheld the Tribunal’s ruling on the election’s outcome.
The PDP’s Senator Napoleon Bali was proclaimed the initial poll winner by INEC.
But the National Assembly and State Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Jos had, on September 11, declared Lalong, who contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the Senator-elect representing Plateau South, and sacked Bali based on irregularities in the PDP primaries that produced him.
The Tribunal had cited faulted PDP’s failure to obey a Jos High Court order which directed the party to mandatorily conduct ward congresses as the reason for ruling in favour of Lalong and APC, which filed a petition against the election outcome.
The Appellate Court held that the 1999 Constitution states that all authorities and persons are expected to comply with orders and judgements of a court, but the PDP failed to hold a valid congress.