The Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, has on Monday, Nov 20th affirmed the victory of Governor of Benue State, father Hyacinth Alia.
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Titus Uba had approached the appellate court to reject the judgment of the election petition tribunal which ruled in Favour of Alia.
At the tribunal, Uba among other things alleged that Alia’s deputy, Samuel Ode, presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission contrary to Section 182(1)(j) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
Among other petitions was that Alia did not submit his name within the INEC given time window as a candidate of the party and that his deputy Ode’s name had not been submitted even after the Party had done a rerun of the primary elections.
A three-member panel of the tribunal, headed by Justice Ibrahim Karaye, insisted that the petition was a pre election matters and as such, was already in lack of locus.
However, in the vein, the appeal Court on Monday, via a three man panel led by Justice Onyekachi Aja Otisi maintained that Uba failed to proved beyond reasonable doubt that his prayers was authentic.
