Benue poll dispute: PDP appeals Tribunal judgement

The People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in Benue State and her governorship candidate in the 2023 general elections, Mr. Titus Uba, have appealed the ruling of the State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which upheld the election of Governor Hyacinth Alia of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Recall that the Tribunal, presided by Justice Ibrahim Karaye, on September 24 2023, dismissed the petition of the PDP and its candidate which challenged the return of Governor Alia by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on the grounds that the panel lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the matter.

In a unanimous decision, the Tribunal held that 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.

However, the Benue State PDP in a statement issued Wednesday in Makurdi by its Publicity Secretary, Bemgba Iortyom said the party had approached the appellate court over the ruling on 16 grounds.

The Publicity Secretary in the statement said, “the PDP through its team of lawyers is before the Court of Appeal challenging the judgment on 16 grounds notably amongst which are the Tribunal’s error in law on the issue of its jurisdiction to entertain both petitions.

“Our great party and her candidate fault 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 is confident that the petition was 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 Engr. 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.

“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.

“We insist 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.”