THE Court of Appeal in Abuja on Monday, November 20, affirmed Hyacinth Alia of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the governorship election held on March 18 in Benue state.
The court dismissed the appeal by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the election, Titus Uba.
In their appeal, Uba and the PDP contested the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal’s ruling, which affirmed Alia as the winner and dismissed their petition.
A three-person tribunal panel, led by Ibrahim Karaye, dismissed the petition because it was statute-barred and was a pre-election matter.
The appellate court presided over by Onyekachi Otisi concluded that Uba had not established forgery charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
Citing section 29(5) of the Electoral Act, Otisi held that the High Court and not the tribunal had the jurisdiction to hear the matter.
The judge further stated that as the appellant did not participate in the party’s primary, he did not have the locus standi to contest the deputy governor’s qualifications.
She added that the deadline set by the Electoral Act for name submissions would be missed and that the rerun primary election was carried out in compliance with a court decision.
“There is a difference between an election conducted based on court order and that of the Electoral Act. The timeline by the Act will collapse where there is a court order”, she added.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Alia the winner of the governorship election held on March 18, having polled 473,933 votes to defeat Uba, who garnered 223,913 votes.
Uba went on to challenge Alia’s victory at the tribunal.
In April, the tribunal confirmed 19 petitions by the candidates of various political parties who participated in the poll.
However, the chairman of the three-man panel of justices, Ibrahim Karaye, said that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to entertain the petitions as the matters raised before the tribunal were pre-election issues as captured in section 285 of the Electoral Act.
Speaking on Uba’s case, the tribunal said the PDP candidate ought to have pursued his case of non-qualification, the nomination of Alia by the APC, and the allegation of a forged certificate and false information on form EC9 against his deputy, Sam Ode, before INEC.
The ICIR reported that the tribunal upheld Alia’s victory as announced by INEC and dismissed the PDP and Ubah’s petition.
The ICIR also reported the sack of Caleb Mutfwang, Dauda Lawal, and Abba Yusuf, of Plateau, Zamfara and Kano state, respectively, by courts.
A reporter with the ICIR
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