New Court Action: Tribunal Takes Fresh Action On ‘Okada Rider’ Who Won House Of Reps Seat On Labour Party’s Platform

Tribunal Takes New Action Against “Okada Rider,” Who Won a House of Representatives Seat on the Platform of the Labour Party
The Kaduna-based National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal has maintained the win of Donatus Mathew, who ran for and won the Kaura Federal Constituency seat in the most recent general elections on the platform of the Labour Party (LP).

reports Naija News When Mathew ran for the parliamentary seat in the election on February 25, 2023, he was an Okada rider and won.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) House of Representatives candidate for Kaura Federal Constituency, Gideon Gwani, filed a plea on Friday, but the tribunal dismissed it and declared him the winner.

In order to contest and invalidate the election of his Labour Party (LP) rival, Gwani, a Minority whip in the House of Representatives in the 9th National Assembly, went before the tribunal.

On the other hand, Justice F.A. Fiberesima dismissed the petition against the LP senator and ordered the PDP candidate to pay Donatus N 1.6 million in damages while speaking on behalf of the three-person tribunal panel in the case’s Friday verdict.

According to Zakari Sogfa, the respondent’s attorney, the petitioner filed two requests against his client, but the tribunal rejected them both.

The Respondent, Donatus, was declared to be ineligible to run in the election that resulted in his selection as his party’s candidate for the Kaura Federal Constituency, according to the first request.

“He based that determination on the fact that Donatus was not supported by his political party and that there were electoral irregularities in five locations, but the Tribunal dismissed the two pleas for lack of merit,” the statement reads.

He disclosed that the panel also decided that Gwani had no authority to tell a political party who should sponsor its candidate or how it should conduct its elections because those were pre-election considerations.