Titus Uba, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for governor in the most recent election in Benue State, and his party have appealed the Governorship Election[ez-toc] Petitions Tribunal’s decision upholding the election of Governor Hyacinth Alia.
On September 24, 2023, the Tribunal, presided over by Justice Ibrahim Mohammed Karaye, dismissed the PDP and Uba petition challenging the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) declaration of Governor Hyacinth Alia the victor of the state’s 2023 gubernatorial election.
The petitioners’ arguments, according to Justice Karaye, who gave the lead ruling, were pre-election matters that should have been handled by the Federal High Court rather than the Tribunal.
However, the PDP is currently appealing the decision before the Court of Appeal on sixteen reasons, including the Tribunal’s alleged legal error over the question of its authority to consider both petitions.
This information was provided in a statement made by the party’s publicity secretary, 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”.