Uba heads to Appeal court over Benue Guber Tribunal judgement

Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Benue State in the last election, Titus Uba and his party have appealed the judgment of the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which affirmed the election of Governor Hyacinth Alia.

The Tribunal, headed by Justice Ibrahim Mohammed Karaye, had on the 24th of September 2023, dismissed the petition by the PDP and Uba, which challenged the return by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of Governor Hyacinth Alia, winner of the 2023 Gubernatorial election in the state.

Justice Karaye, who delivered the lead judgment, said 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.

The PDP, however, is now before the Court of Appeal challenging the judgment on sixteen grounds, amongst which are the Tribunal’s alleged error in law on the issue of its jurisdiction to entertain both petitions.

This was contained in a statement by the Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Bemgba Iortyom.

Mr Iortyom said, “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 reiterates faith in the Judiciary and remains 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 the 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”.