The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State and its candidate in the 2023 governorship election, Titus Uba, say they have appealed the judgment of the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in the state, which upheld the election of Governor Hyacinth Alia.
Justice Ibrahim Karaye, who delivered the lead judgment, said the issues raised by the petitioners were pre-election matters and ought to have been entertained by the Federal High Court and not the Tribunal.
A statement by its State Publicity Secretary Bemgba Lotyom however indicates that PDP through its team of lawyers is before the Court of Appeal challenging the judgment on sixteen grounds Prominent amongst them are the tribunal’s error in law on the issue of its jurisdiction to entertain both petitions.
Bemgba stated that the party and its candidate faulted the decision of the Tribunal which held, to the effect, that the ground of the petition was that of pre-election, despite clear and unambiguous statutory provisions and pronouncements of higher courts of record on the matter to the contrary.
The party says it is confident that the petition has been established before the tribunal as the documentary depositions made by Governor Alia’s running mate, Samuel Ode were forged and that he was not a candidate to the election on the account that his name was not submitted to INEC alongside that of Alia for the election as expressly required by law.
PDP and Uba reiterate faith in the judiciary and remain optimistic that the appellate court will set aside the judgment of the tribunal and deliver substantive justice to their petition, in line with the hopes of the people that the judiciary will always be their last hope.
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“By sustaining challenge to the outcome of the 2023 governorship election in Benue State, the party believes it is deepening the culture of democracy and sanitizing the process of leadership recruitment, which alone will ensure that its legacy of development in the state is kept alive and improved upon by the right choice of leaders.
It insists that a government’s sole claim to legitimacy lies in its emergence through the due process prescribed and regulated by the rule of law, outside of which no one, no matter his assumptions of populism and self-righteousness, may lay his hands on the sacred mandate of the people. ‘The statement reads in part:
The Tribunal, headed by Justice Ibrahim Mohammed Karaye, on 24th September 2023, dismissed the petition by PDP and Uba which challenged the return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of Governor Hyacinth Alia as winner of the 2023 Gubernatorial election in the state.
A ruling the party is contesting at the appellate court.
(Editor: Paul Akhagbemhe)
