The Taraba State Governorship election petition
tribunal had given its judgment in an election that
was strongly contested particularly between the PDP
and APC candidates.
In our constitution and electoral laws, an aggrieved
party has a period of 21 days to appeal against a
decision of the
tribunal.
Under the constitution and electoral law, you cannot
start executing judgement when the constitutional or
legal time of your opponent to appeal against the
judgement has not expired or elapsed.
Curiously and very worrisome, few days after the
tribunal judgement in Abuja, President Buhari
addressed the APC candidate as “Her Excellency”
during the ministerial inauguration. The following
legal questions readily come to mind:
1. What was President Buhari’s legal basis to address
Sen. Aisha as her Excellency when she had not taken
the oath of office?
2. Did President Buhari by his statement intend to
usurp Governor Darius’ constitutional right of
appeal?
3. Did the President intend a situation where Taraba will
have two Governors?
This is so because Governor Darius legally remains
the Governor of Taraba State as he exercises his
constitutional right of appeal.
Some of us are worried because such a sensitive
statement from the president is capable of inciting
tension and heating up the polity unnecessarily in
Taraba State.
Nigeria already has a lot of challenges to contend
with, it will be unfair to the good people of Taraba
state to incite more tension in the state by such
statement from Mr. President. This is because Taraba
has passed through serious security challenges in the
past. Thank God, the current administration of
Governor Darius Ishaku is working round the clock to
restore peace across the state.
The internally displaced people are returning to their
homes. Local and foreign investors are coming to
take advantage of the huge Agricultural potential of
the state. Democracy is truly taking shape in Taraba
State
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