Benue guber: Tribunal upholds Governor Alia’s election

<p>The Benue State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Makurdi, the state capital, has upheld the election of Governor Hyacinth Alia of the All Progressives Congress, APC.</p>, <p>The tribunal dismissed the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its governorship candidate in the March 18 poll, Titus Uba, challenging Alia’s victory.</p>, <p>The three-man panel of justices, led by Justice Ibrahim Karaye, held that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to entertain the petition as the matter raised before the court are pre-election issues as captured in Section 285 of the Electoral Act.</p>, <p>The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Alia the winner of the poll with 473,933 votes ahead of his closest rival Uba, who scored 223,913.</p>, <p>But Uba, who was not satisfied with the election’s outcome, approached the court to nullify Alia’s election.</p>, <p>Ruling in the matter, the tribunal stated that the petitioner ought to have pursued his case of non-qualification and the nomination of Governor Alia by the APC and the allegation of a forged certificate and false information on Form EC9 against his deputy, Sam Ode, before INEC.</p>