On Saturday, the Benue State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Makurdi upheld Governor Hyacinth Alia’s victory in the March 18 governorship election.
The chairman of the panel, Ibrahim Karaye, delivered the judgment and stated that the court could not consider pre-election issues raised by the petitioners, Titus Uba and the PDP, as only the Federal Supreme Court had exclusive jurisdiction to hear such matters. Karaye read the unanimous ruling.
According to him, the petitioners’ case was a misuse of court procedures since they had already filed the same case in the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court and did not contest its verdict.
He also stated that the petitioners lacked the legal standing to challenge the nomination of the second and third respondents by the fourth respondent, as they were not members of the fourth respondent.
Karaye further said that the petitioners failed to prove their allegations of forgery against the third respondent before the court.
He said the second and third respondents were qualified to participate in the March 18 gubernatorial election and therefore dismissed the case.
The petitioners, Titus Uba and the PDP, had dragged the respondents, INEC, Mr. Alia, his deputy, Sam Ode, and the APC before the court, challenging their declaration of the INEC.
The petitioners argued that the second and third respondents, Governor Alia and Mr. Ode, were not, at the time of participating in the elections, qualified to participate.
They claimed that the fourth respondent, the APC, did not follow the provisions of the law in the nomination of gubernatorial and deputy governorship candidates.
They also alleged that the third respondent had presented a forged certificate to the first respondent, therefore INEC should be disqualified.
Therefore, they prayed, among other things, for the annulment of their election and the declaration of the petitioners as winners of the election, having obtained the second highest number of legal votes.
They also maintained that since they did not qualify to participate in the elections, their votes should be declared invalid and the certificates previously issued to them by INEC should be withdrawn.
NAN reports that the petitioners in the suit did not question the outcome of the March 18 Benue gubernatorial election, but rather the qualifications of the candidates.
However, the defendants in their counterarguments urged the court to dismiss the lawsuit in its entirety as an abuse of court process.
Governor Jacinto Alia
The respondents stated that before the elections, the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court had given judgment on the same matter raised by the petitioners, but that they had not appealed the judgment to date.
They also said that the issues raised were all pre-election issues and that only the Federal High Court had exclusive jurisdiction to hear them.
The second and third respondents clearly stated that since the prayers sought by the petitioners were all pre-election issues, the case of the petitioners was barred and had to be struck out.
They said the petitioners lacked standing to challenge the nomination of candidates of other political parties as they were mere meddlesome interlopers.
Victory for democracy and the rule of law: Assistant Governor Alia
Reacting to the ruling, Tersoo Kula, the governor’s media aide, assured the indigenes of the state that their chief is committed to putting the welfare of the state before himself.
He noted that the victory was driven by the support of the people to whom sovereignty and power truly belong.
Kula said the victory is for democracy and the rule of law.
He applauded the court for its determination to be seen as the last hope of the common man by preserving the mandate that the people voluntarily gave to their governor.
Kula encouraged people to be happy because there is no power so powerful as to thwart his supreme will through the back door.
He stressed that the time has come for all parties to get to work and ensure that the State reaches “the heights of greatness, far from the current disaster of misery, poverty and mismanagement.”