The National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, on Tuesday, upheld the election of the House of Representatives member for Katsina-Ala, Ukum and Logo Federal Constituency of Benue State Richard Gbande.
Orlu Pawa of the Social Democratic Party, SDP had petitioned the tribunal challenging the qualification of Gbande of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to contest the election on the ground that he was indicted by the Benue State Government and as such, was not qualified to contest for any political office.
Delivering judgement on the petition, the tribunal sitting in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, held that the indictment by a commission cannot be relied upon.
The judgement read by M.A. Onyetenu maintained that a judicial Commission of Inquiry that indicted the house of Representatives member of over N1.2 Billion which he (Gbande) appealed was not a Penal court.
She said the Benue State government should have gone further to prosecute the accused in another competent court, saying that if this had been done, the findings of the tribunal would have been different.
The court also held that it was only the Code of Conduct Tribunal that had the right to try any person found guilty of contravening public service code.
“Benue State Government should have set the grounds for him to be prosecuted by the Code of conduct tribunal. This petition lacks merit and is hereby dismissed”, the tribunal ruled.
