Supreme Court Delivers Final Judgment On Benue Governorship Election

Supreme Court has delivered a final judgment on the Benue Governorship Election.

Newsone Nigeria reports that the Supreme Court of Nigeria has affirmed the election of Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State, northcentral Nigeria.

This online news platform understands that an appeal lodged by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Titus Uba, to challenge the outcome of the bBBenue governorship election held in the state on March 18, 2023, was dismissed on Monday, January 8, 2023, by a five-man panel of Justices of the Supreme Court.

The Justice Inyang Okoro-led panel dismissed the appeal after counsel for the appellants, Mr. Sebastian Hon, SAN, pulled out of the case, which the court noted involved pre-election issues.

It will be recalled that the Court of Appeal in Abuja also affirmed Alia of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the validly elected governor of the state.

The appellate court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of justices, dismissed Uba’s appeal as lacking in merit.

The court in its lead judgment that was delivered by Justice Onyekachi Aja Otisi, said it found no reason to set aside the verdict of the Benue State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which had on September 23 validated Alia’s election victory.

It held that some of the grounds the PDP and its candidate raised in the appeal not only bordered on pre-election issues but also had elements of crime. According to the appellate court, the appellants had raised the issue of forgery against the Deputy Governor of the State, Mr. Samuel Ode.

The court held that since the allegation that Ode submitted forged documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in aid of his qualification to contest the election, was criminal in nature, it ought to have been proved beyond reasonable doubt.

More so, the appellate court stressed that the issue of non-qualification of a candidate, being a pre-election matter, could only be ventilated at the Federal High Court and not before the election tribunal, as was done by the appellants.

The court held that since the 14 days that the 1999 Constitution, as amended, allowed for the eligibility of a candidate in an election to be challenged had elapsed, the issue had become statute-barred.

Besides, the court dismissed the appellants’ contention that the APC failed to submit the name of Governor Alia to INEC at least 180 days before the gubernatorial election was held.

It held that the argument was worthless because the primary election that produced Alia as the flagbearer of the APC in the governorship election was ordered by a High Court and conducted within the period the court stipulated.

The appellate court in its final analysis, held that the appellants failed to discharge the burden of proof that was placed on them by the law.

It, therefore, resolved all the issues that were raised in the appeal against the appellants.