Benue Governorship Election: Tribunal Overrules PDP

The Justice Elizabeth Karatu-led governorship election petition tribunal sitting in Makurdi has on Monday, September 21, ruled against the petition by the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Prince Terhemen Tarzoor.

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Samuel Ortom

The court upheld the election of Governor Samuel Ortom who contested on the platform of All Progressives Congress as the winner of the April 11 governorship poll in the state as declared by the Independent National Election Commission.

Justice Karatu dismissed the petition against the governor on the ground that the PDP candidate failed to prove his case substantially stressing that Tarzoor lacked cogent facts to back the petition.

According to The Guardian report, Taroor’s petition was predicated on three grounds, insisting that Ortom was at the time of the Benue governor election not qualified/disqualified to contest the election.

The second ground points out that the declaration and return of Ortom as winner of the April 11, 2015 poll was invalid by reason of non-compliance with the mandatory provisions of the Electoral Act (S. 87) 2010 (as amended) as well as the 1999 Constitution (S. 177) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

The third ground alleged that Ortom was not elected by majority of lawful and valid votes cast at the Benue state governorship election.

However, Anambrarian News reports that the tribunal insisted that the PDP failed to tender its register for Nzorov ward in Guma Local Government Area to prove that Ortom was still a member of the party at the time APC held its primaries.

Furthermore, ground two of the petitioner’s relief seeking to quash declaration of Ortom as winner of the election having scored lawful, valid votes was struck out by the tribunal.

The court also noted that the PDP candidate did not seek an order for fresh election and as such, the court could not grant any relief not sought by the petitioner.

She said: “It is the duty of the petitioner to stand by his case and provide sufficient evidence. The court cannot take up such duty for him.”

Justice Karatu dismissed the evidence and witnesses who had appeared to testify on behalf of Tarzoor saying that the testimony of some of them could not be relied upon, especially the INEC witness.

The video which was said to have been recorded from Channels Television to prove that Ortom was not a candidate of the APC was tendered but later dismissed on the basis that it was difficult to ascertain the veracity of those who appeared in the video.

The tribunal said that the petitioner should have brought them to court to testify and that the court was not given an opportunity to cross-examine them.

The Guardian reports that the defendants comprising of the Benue state governor, APC and INEC had respectively questioned the jurisdiction of the tribunal to entertain the issue of qualification and or disqualification of Ortom to contest the April 11 poll.

But the tribunal held that in view of the fact that Tarzoor was a candidate at the election, he had the locus standi to question the qualification of a candidate at the poll after the declaration of result of the said election.

The tribunal eventually ruled: “However, in the final analysis, we resolve most of the issues in favour of Ortom. The petition fails and the court upholds the election of the governor as declared by INEC.”

The Benue state ex-governor, Dr Gabriel Suswam who is being probed Ortom has opened up for the first time on corruption allegations leveled against him.