Court Upholds Sen. Joshua Dariye’s Election As PDP Candidate

A Federal High Court seating in Jos on Friday upheld the participation and election of Senator Joshua Dariye as the PDP candidate for Plateau Central Senatorial District in the December 7, 2014 party primaries.

Former Special Adviser to former governor Jonah Jang, Mr Alexander Mwolwus, had challenged the eligibility of Dariye in taking part in the PDP senatorial primaries held in Pankshin.

Dariye left Labour Party (LP) and joined PDP where he won the primaries after beating five other aspirants, including Mwolwus.

In his affidavit, through his counsel, J.S. Iliya, Mwolwus prayed the court to quash the election of Dariye at the primaries on the ground that he was not formally re-absorbed but was granted waiver by the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) in Abuja.

According to him, the state party leadership did not recognise Dariye as a member of the party until the waiver that came shortly before the primaries.

But Dariye through his counsel, Mr Garba Pwul (SAN), had asked the court to strike out the case for lack of merit, arguing that only a political party has the power to choose its candidates for any election.

Justice Ambrose Allagoa, in his judgment, said after careful consideration of the arguments put by the counsels in the case, faulted the approach of Mwolwus to the case.

He said that by Section 21 (6) the power to choose a candidate for any election rest only with the political party and not an individual; therefore the plaintiff has failed to prove his case.

Allagoah then declared that “the case is hereby dismissed for lack of merit”.