A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has on Monday dismissed a suit filed by Comrade Godwin Bedir Jnr, challenging the candidacy of the People’s Democratic Party PDP House of Assembly for Kanke State Constituency in Plateau State Caleb Shikir.
Comrade Bedir had challenged the process of the PDP primary election which produced Caleb Shikir as the said flag bearer of the party.
However, delivering judgement, Justice Murtala Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court 2, Abuja, said the suit was baseless and lacking in merit.
Speaking after the court ruling, Bedir noted that the judgment was passed in a rush to meet up with deadline, which according to him, the judge was unable to go through all their documents due to the time frame but rather relied on the report of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Bedir had filed the case praying the court to nullify the primary which according to him only 6 wards out of the 10 Federal wards of Kanke Local Government area of Plateau State participated in the primary alleging that 4 wards had fake delegates list.
He further explained that after he complained to the Appeal Committee of the Party on the 23 May 2022, primary that produced Shikir was cancelled and a new date was fixed but the election could not hold on the said day.
He said “I feel the judge was In a rush, so she just delivered the judgement in a rush because tomorrow is our last day and she couldn’t go through all our submissions to know what it contains…we are going to look at it with my lawyers to see what to do, but since there is appeal, I think we will go to the appeal, we will file inn our documents the way they were”
Reacting to the judgement, Caleb Shikir described it as victory for the party and a very big lesson, where he advised that contestants should always accept defeat.
He said the judgement was a good one, not just because it favoured him but how the judge highlighted issues that were brought by the parties in the suit which she ended up advising them to learn how to accept defeat in any contest.
Shikir called on Bedir to take it in good fate and work for the party’s victory come 2023.
On the issue of fake delegates list, Shikir pointed out that the delegates that elected him were the legitimate delegates who were nominated from the 6 wards but the 4 other wards that contentious issues were recorded were cancelled by the committee set up to conduct the primary election in Kanke under the chairmanship of Hon. Gregory Nyelong.