THE Supreme Court has on Monday affirmed the election of Simon Lalong of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as Governor of Plateau State.

The seven-man panel led by Justice Sylvester Ngwatu had dismissed the appeal filed by the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Jeremiah Useni and upheld the verdict of the appellant court validating Lalong as winner of the March governorship election.

Delivering his judgement, Justice Paul Galinje ruled that the appeal filed by the PDP and Useni lacked merit.

Useni and the PDP had filed an appeal challenging the judgement of the tribunal. He alleged that the election was not conducted in compliance with the Electoral Act and was marred by corrupt practices.

Useni had also accused Lalong of having lied on oath while submitting his form CF001 to the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC).

The court, however, in its ruling held that Lalong has the educational qualification to contest in the election. The court also awarded the sum of N200,000 as the cost to be paid to the respondents.