The Benue State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal on Monday affirmed Governor Samuel Ortom of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the winner of the March 9, 2019 governorship election in the state.
The tribunal in its judgment said the petition brought by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Emmanuel Jime challenging Ortom’s victory was not valid.
Our correspondent reports that the tribunal commenced sitting by 9:37am and announced the verdict at 7pm in the night.
Jime challenged the election of the incumbent Governor on grounds that the election was marred by irregularities and not in compliance with the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.
He had also alleged that Gov. Ortom was not duly elected by lawful voters, maintaining that he (Jime) scored the highest number of valid votes and as such, should be declared winner of the election or in the alternative, order be made for fresh election.
Earlier, Gov. Ortom had maintained that the election was conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act 2010 as amended, adding that non substantial compliance did not affect the result of the election.
He also noted that even if deductions are made as pleaded by the petitioners, the margin of lead was high and as such, the petition should be struck out in its entirety.
During the hearing of the petition, Jime called 59 witnesses, Ortom called only one while the electoral empire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC did not call any witness.
READ ALSO: Sokoto Governorship Election Tribunal Affirms Tambuwal’s Victory
Delivering the 10-hour judgement, Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Henry Olusiyi held that the petitioners witnesses statements were contradictory, unreliable and not credible.
Justice Olusiyi added that their statements were incompetent, frowning at their inability to identify documents and link them to the case which amounted to dumping the materials on the tribunal.
He also held that the petitioners failed to prove allegation of over voting, noting voters’ register and not smart card readers remained the valid method to ascertain the number of registered voters in an election.
“Card reader can only be alternative and admissible if the National Assembly amends the Electoral Act to provide for it. Witnesses failed to prove allegation of over voting to warrant the cancellation of votes in polling units.
“We are satisfied that the result sheet presented to us by INEC is a true representation of votes cast in the election.
“We find no merit whatsoever in the petition. We hold that the election of Governor Samuel Ortom by INEC is affirmed.”
Prior to the judgement, the tribunal ruled on seven applications and preliminary objections that bother on pre-trial, smart card, introduction of new facts amongst others.
While the tribunal ruled five of the issues in favor of the APC, two others were resolved in favor of the PDP.