Benue Tribunal: Court Dismisses PDP’s Petition, Upholds Alia’s Election

The election of Governor Hyacinth Alia has been confirmed by the Benue State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which is in session in Makurdi, the state capital.

According to Anaedoonline.ng, the tribunal dismissed the plea submitted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Titus Uba, its governorship candidate, on Saturday.

In his ruling, Justice Ibrahim Karaye, the chairman of the three-judge panel, declared that the tribunal lacked the authority to hear the appeal since the problems highlighted were pre-election affairs, as defined by section 285 of the Electoral Act.

Catholic Church Suspends Priest Over Governorship Ambition

After Alia, a former Catholic priest, was proclaimed the victor of the March 18th governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the PDP and Uba disputed Alia’s victory in the 2023 governorship election.

Alia, who ran on the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket, received 473,933 votes, beating out Uba of the PDP, who received 223,913 votes.

The PDP and Uba moved the tribunal in an attempt to have the election results reversed in their favour after the INEC declared Alia the winner.

They requested that the tribunal annul the election on the grounds that the candidates had broken the electoral law and had allegedly provided INEC with forged documents.

Catholic Church Suspends Priest Over Governorship Ambition

However, the tribunal found in its ruling that the petitioner should have taken the INEC, which was above the Federal High Court, to task over his case of non-qualification, the APC’s nomination of Governor Alia, and the allegation of a forged certificate and false information on form EC9 against his deputy, Sam Ode.

The panel ruled that rather than going to the tribunal, the petitioner should have filed an appeal for the earlier case of the problem denied by the court at the Appeal Court.

 

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