JUST IN: APPEAL COURT DISMISSES UBA’S PETITION AGAINST ALIA, DEPUTY IN BENUE GUBER POLL
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The appeal filed by People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for governor, Titus Uba, contesting Hyacinth Alia’s election as Benue State’s elected governor was denied by the Court of Appeal in Abuja.
The court decided all three of the issues put forth against Uba and PDP in a unanimous ruling for different reasons.
The lead judgement’s author, Justice Onyekachi Otisi, rejected Uba’s claims that deputy governor Samuel Ode was not qualified.
According to him, the PDP candidate was unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ode had forged the INEC form EC9.
The non-qualification concerns are pre-election considerations, according to the Appellate Court, and cannot be contested in the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, as Uba did. This is one of the reasons why the court made this decision.
Justice Otisi further stated that a lawsuit challenging non-qualification may only be filed fourteen days after the incident giving rise to the dispute.
The court also addressed Uba’s claims that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had not received the name of the governor, Hyacinth Alia, from the All Progressives Congress within 180 days of the March 18 election.
The Appellate Court decided that the accusations could stand as the High Court had mandated the primary election that resulted in Alia and it was completed within the allotted time frame.
Judge Otisi ruled that Uba’s appeal against the September 23 ruling of the Benue State Election Petition Tribunal was denied due to a lack of merit.
The PDP governorship candidate’s attempt to have the tribunal’s decision overturned was denied by the Court, which then maintained the tribunal’s ruling.
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