S’Court Dismisses PDP’s Appeal against Election of Alia as Benue Governor

* Reserves judgment in Ebonyi guber tussle 

Alex Enumah in Abuja

The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal filed against the election of Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State.

The dismissal was sequel to an oral withdrawal of the appeal by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his governorship candidate, Mr Titus Uba, upon being confronted by the apex court that the matter was a pre-election matter and as such outside the jurisdiction of the court.

Uba and PDP had last month approached the apex court to challenge the declaration of Governor Alia of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the March 18 governorship election in Benue State.

Besides claiming that the governor and his party did not win majority of lawful votes cast at the election, they submitted that Alia and the APC were not qualified to contest the election on account of alleged certificate forgery and providing false information by the Deputy Governor, Sam Odeh, to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

However, when the matter came up on Monday for hearing, a five-member panel of the apex court led by Justice John Okoro, pointed out that the major ground of non-qualification upon which the appellants rest their appeal was a pre-election matter, which the apex court has held over time to be an incompetent case before them in a post election matter.

Justice Okoro stated that it would be needless to proceed with the matter knowing the outcome, adding that the court should not be overburdened with such issues considering the magnitude of cases on the docket of the apex court.

Responding, the lead lawyer to the appellants, Chief Sebastine Hon (SAN), moved an oral application for the withdrawal of the appeal.

The application for withdrawal was not objected to by the counsel representing, INEC, Alia, Odeh and APC, following which Justice Okoro announced the dismissal of the case.

The Court of Appeal in Abuja, had in November last year, dismissed the appeal filed by Uba and PDP against the election of Alia as Governor of Benue State.

The three-member panel of the appellate court, in a judgment, held that the appeal lacked merit and subsequently dismissed it.

Justice Onyekachi Otisi, who delivered the lead judgment, subsequently affirmed the judgment of the Benue State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which had in September affirmed the declaration of Alia of the APC as the winner of the March 18 governorship election in Benue State.

INEC had declared Alia, a Catholic priest, winner of the Benue guber poll having scored 473,933 votes ahead of his closest rival Uba, who scored 223,913.

Dissatisfied, Uba and PDP had approached the governorship election tribunal to challenge INEC’s return of Alia as governor.

Amongst others, they sought the disqualification of Alia on account of alleged certificate forgery and providing false information in the form EC9 by the deputy governor, Sam Ode.

However, in their judgment, the three-member tribunal led by Justice Ibrahim Karaye dismissed the petition for lacking in merit.

The tribunal had held that it had no jurisdiction to entertain the petition on grounds that the matters raised before it were pre-election issues as captured in section 285 of the Electoral Act.

In the unanimous judgment, the tribunal held that the petitioners ought to have pursued its case of non-qualification, forgery and perjury beyond the Federal High Court to the Court of Appeal and not the tribunal.

Not satisfied, Uba and PDP approached the appellate court to set aside the judgment of the tribunal on grounds that the lower tribunal erred in law in dismissing their case.

Amongst reliefs sought included the setting aside of the judgment of the tribunal and nullification of the election of Alia as governor of Benue State.

They also requested the court to declare them as authentic winner of the election after voiding the election of Alia of the APC.

However, the Court of Appeal, in a unanimous judgment resolved all issues raised against the appellant and affirmed the judgment of the tribunal which upheld Alia’s declaration as governor of Benue State.

Meanwhile, in a related development, the Supreme also on Monday, reserved its judgment in the appeal filed by Chuwkuma Odii and his party, PDP, challenging the concurrent judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Ebonyi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which affirmed the election of Francis Nwifuru as Governor of Ebonyi State.

Justice Okoro announced that judgment is reserved to a date that would be communicated to parties shortly after lawyers representing all parties adopted and argued their written briefs for and against the appeal.

The Court of Appeal, sitting in Lagos, had upheld the election that declared Nwifuru of the APC winner of the March 18 governorship election in Ebonyi State.

The appellate court had upheld Nwifuru’s election shortly after it dismissed Odii’s appeal for being incompetent and lacking in merit.

The three-member panel, led by Justice Jummai Sankey, had in a unanimous judgment held that the PDP and its candidate lacked the legal standing to challenge Nwifuru’s nomination as candidate of the APC in the March 18 governorship poll in Ebonyi State.

The court also dismissed all five issues raised by the petitioners, declaring Nwifuru’s election valid and upholding his victory.