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

•Reserves judgment in Ebonyi guber

Alex Enumah in Abuja

The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal filed against the election of Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State, by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The dismissal was sequel to an oral withdrawal of the appeal by the PDP and its 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 Alia of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the March 18 governorship election in Benue State.

Aside from 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 of false information by the Deputy Governor, Sam Odeh, to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

However, when the matter came up yesterday 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 rested their appeal was a pre-election matter, which the apex court had held over time to be an incompetent case before it in a post-election matter.

Justice Okoro harped on the fact 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.

Lead lawyer to the appellants, Chief Sebastine Hon, SAN, had moved an oral application for the withdrawal of the appeal.

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

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, yesterday, reserved its judgment in the appeal filed by Chuwkuma Odii and his party, the 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 was 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 All Progressives Congress (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.