Plateau guber LP Saga: What we know

By Kingsley Chukwuka

The struggle for who flies the governorship flag of the Labour Party in Plateau State has generated controversy since last year when a factional candidate emerged through a voice vote allegedly nullifying the candidacy of Amb. Yohanna Margif who had earlier clinched the ticket.

Margif had earlier bought the governorship form of the All Progressive Congress (APC), in Plateau State, which was sold for a whopping sum of 50 million naira, but abandoned it for the Labour Party when it became clear that the Plateau APC had a preferred candidate for its primaries.

Margif who did not wait for the APC primaries to be conducted, defected from the party and pitched tent with the Labour Party where he obtained the party nomination form to run for the 2023 governorship seat in the State.

The party nomination form was handed over to him in Abuja by the LP National Chairman, Barr. Julius Abure and as a result was adopted as the sole candidate of the party on May 21, 2022.

Subsequently, a primary election was held in the State on June 9, 2022, at Renat Hotel Jos, where 85 delegates, five each from the 17 LGA of the State unanimously affirmed Margif as the governorship candidate of the party, in the presence of INEC officials, security personnel, Media and supporters of the party.

However things took a new turn when another APC candidate Dr. Patrick Dakum, who participated in the APC governorship primaries and lost, defected to the Labour Party and on 6 August 2022, after much back and forth with the party guber candidate Margif, claimed that another primaries was conducted through a voice vote where he emerged as the new governorship candidate for the party.

The emergence of Dakum sparked off a running battle between the duo as the fresh primary election conducted through affirmation, was expected to effectively void the earlier primary election that produced Yohanna Margif as candidate.

Both Dakum and a faction of the Plateau State Labour Party claimed that Margif had withdrawn from the race but Margif, rejected claims and approached the court to discountenance Dakum’s emergence as LP candidate.

He told the court that the said withdrawal letter was fabricated by some mischief makers to cause havoc and mislead loyal members of the party.

The court however ruled in favour of Dakum on the grounds that evidence before the court shows that Margif actually signed the withdrawal letter.

The court also based its judgement on the fact that Margif failed to provide enough evidence that he did not sign the withdrawal letter.

It also said that the plaintiff did not approach the court to stop the second primaries from holding.

Responding to the judgement, Margif said the court did not dwell on his prayers to arrive at its judgement.

He said he observed the court placed heavy reliance on issues that are entirely unrelated.

According to him: “I observed that the court placed heavy reliance on issues that are entirely unrelated to my lawsuit to arrive at the verdict of the Court in her judgement.

Expulsion from the party, Failure to oppose the second primary election of the Party on 5th August 2022 and the Endorsement of the National Chairman and Secretary on a purported withdrawal letter dated 5th August 2022, he said were unrelated to his prayers.

He said his prayers were: “He did not personally submit any letter of voluntary withdrawal from the governorship race in Plateau to the national Chairman and Secretary of the Party,.

“That his lawyers delivered his letter to LP and INEC on 2nd August 2022 to debunk rumours that he had withdrawn from the governorship race in Plateau.

“The purported letter of withdrawal that is said to have been endorsed by the two principal officers of the party does not bear the name and LP membership card number of Amb Yohana Margif.

“That as a candidate of LP,  he emerged from the valid internal processes of the Party; from screening, primary election, issuance of certificate of return, filing of nomination papers with INEC, valid nomination of his running mate and the eventual publication of his name by INEC”, he said.

However, appealing the judgment, on December 22, 2022, Margif said he has engaged a team of lawyers which includes 3 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) to explore every available legal means to seek for justice.