Appeal court affirms Ortom’s re-election

By David Mzer

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, Thursday, upheld the re-election of Governor Samuel Ortom of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Delivering judgement, Justice F. D Oho dismissed the appeal filed by the All Progressives Congress, APC and it’s governorship candidate in the March 9 and March 23, 2019 governorship election in Benue State, Emmanuel Jime for lacking in merit and awarded cost of N150,000 to be paid to each of the respondents in the suit.

The five-man panel unanimously resolved all the five issues formulated in the appeal against Jime and the APC, and agreed with the respondents counsels that the appeal lacks merit.

The panel also dismissed the cross appeal filed by second and third respondents in the appeal and awarded cost of N250,000 against the cross appellants.

The Court upheld all the rulings of the Benue State governorship election petitions tribunal.

The three-man panel of the tribunal led by Justice Henry Olusiyi, had in it’s judgement on October 7,2019 dismissed the petition filed by Jime and the APC.

The tribunal held that the petitioners failed to prove that the election was marred by irregularities and substantial non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010, as amended.

The tribunal also held that the petitioners failed to prove their allegations of over-voting by not tendering relevant electoral documents including the voters register.

It noted that the petitioners alleged non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act in 380 polling units but only called witnesses in 30 polling units, adding that it was impossible for 30 people to prove non-compliance in 380 polling units.

The tribunal stressed that the smart card reader is essentially for identification of the permanent voters card of a would-be voter, while the voters register is for accreditation of a would-be voter.

It described the testimony of the witnesses called by the petitioner as inadmissible hear say evidence, contradictory, inconsistent unreliable, untruthful without any value.

The tribunal maintained that until section 49 of the Electoral Act, 2010, is amended, the permanent voters registers remains the instrument for accreditation and the smart card reader machine cannot be the basis of challenging any election, as doing so will amount to forming clouds and winds without rain.