Kwande disclosed this in an interview with journalists in Jos, the State Capital.
“We didn’t cause it, they shot themselves on the foot. It is a PDP man that took the party to the court. We didn’t take them to court. If they had settled out of court… It happened to us in Zamfara where a member of the APC took the party to court. We won the governorship, the senate and all members of the House of Representatives and House of Assembly but we still lost because our member took us to court. So it is not our doing, it is their doing,” Kwande stated.
The politician who is once again aspiring for the House of Representatives seat, therefore, advised the opposition to “just brace up and give us a good fight”.
“We are ready for them! We are not scared of the opposition. We have done a good job and I am confident our party would win,” he added.
He, however, urged successful candidates in his party to emulate the “good performance” of the President and governor in order to better the fortunes of the party and restore confidence in the state.
“There’s a lot of voters apathy, lots of voters disharmony and I think the party has lost a lot of ground. But it is up to them to see that the party gains ground before the general election in 2023,” Kwande further stated.
Recall that a State High Court sitting in Jos, had on 29th September, 2021 dismissed a suit filed by the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), challenging the decision of the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC), which had excluded the party from participating in the local government council polls.
Justice Ishaku Kunda, who delivered the judgement on the matter, upheld PLASIEC’s decision, and said the suit by PDP lacked substance, because the party could not abide by the guidelines of the commission in participating in the elections.
Kunda maintained that PLASIEC has the right to have refused PDP nomination and expression of interest forms for the said election; stressing that the PDP erred for not having followed the instructions.
The judge sighted the judgement of SP Gang of November 20th, 2020, which ordered the party to conduct state congress, the party went ahead to evoke sections of its constitution and dissolved the state EXCO and constituted a caretaker committee which conducted its primaries that produced the candidates which PLASIEC refused to issue forms.
In the circumstances, the judge held that all the steps and actions taken by the caretaker committee of PDP, including the conduct of the said primary elections was null and void.
“The entire claims in the submission of the claimant is hereby dismissed,” the Judge stated.
Furthermore, the PDP went to the Court of Appeal, in Jos, seeking an injunction to stop the conduct of the polls, but the court denied them the request, saying since the tenure of the elected officials at the local government had elapsed, a vacuum cannot be created.
