Plateau State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang on Saturday lauded President Bola Tinubu, ascribing Supreme Court victory to the president’s statesmanship.
Our correspondent reports that the Court of Appeal in Abuja had in November last year sacked Mutfwang as governor of the state.
The appellate court held that the PDP which nominated him as a candidate had no structure at the time of his nomination and ordered the Independent Electoral Commission to withdraw his certificate of return and give it to the candidate of the All Progressives Congress ,Nentawe Yiltwatda as the duly elected Governor of Plateau state
However on Friday, a five-member panel of the Supreme court in Abuja led by Justice Emmanuel Agim reversed the decision of the appellate court on the ground that the issue of candidates nomination is a pre-election matter which the lower court had no jurisdiction to entertain in the first place
Mutfwang who returned to Jos on Saturday after the Supreme Court judgement spoke at a reception organised for him to celebrate his victory in the state.
He thanked Tinubu for maintaining a policy of non interference despite pressure from angling to truncate the mandate of the people
The governor said without Tinubu’s stance, the reversal of his sack as governor by the Supreme Court would have been different .
Mutwang said, ” When I say thank you to Mr President, it’s not about politics. The Nigerian president is one of the strongest presidents on Earth. There was a time that the Nigerian president almost declared a Nigerian ,non-nigerian.
“That is how powerful he can be. But I want to thank the President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I know how he was pushed. I know how they tried to use his name to intimidate the judiciary. I stand on record to say he refused to intrude into the political space into the judicial space. That is why Their Lordships could deliver their judgments without fear or favor. But that is not to say that we do not salute the courage of their lordships. They had the courage to deliver justice according to law. We are grateful to them. We are grateful to this President. We are grateful to the judiciary. There may be people who have not done well. But we cannot throw the baby and the bathwater. And when we lose the judiciary, the hope of the common man is lost.but yesterday, Our hope, our respect, our belief in justice was restored yesterday. and I trust God, that this will mark a new beginning in the rebirth of our nation.”
Mutfwang who promised to work for Plateau state added, “It has energised me, it has provoked me that for the rest of my life, by the grace of God, I will leave for the interest of plateau. I will ensure that by the grace of God, what God has destined for plateau, that I will make sure I work day and night to make it a reality. That God enabling me, we shall end the attacks on plateau, that God enabling me, we shallow eradicate poverty on the plateau, that God enabling me we shall eradicate illiteracy on the Plateau that God helping me, we will make sure that we have fantastic healthcare facilities on the plateau, that God helping me, our children will be educated to the best level ever they can attain. That God helping me that our women will rejoice and our youth will be enabled. Plateau will be great again. We will start from where Baba Jang left, we’ll catch up where he left. But by the grace of God, we’ll exceed where he left because plateau people deserve better.”
