Benue Guber: Supreme Court affirms Gov Rev Alia’s election

By Vivian Okejeme, Abuja

The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Hyacinth Alia of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as governor of Benue State after the Apex Court dismissed the appeal of Titus Uba of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
A five-member panel of the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal after counsel for the PDP governorship candidate, Sebastian Hon, SAN withdrew the appeal challenging APC victory in the March 18 governorship election.
Hon, a Senior Advocate, withdrew the appeal after getting a hint from the Apex Court panel that the matter before it was one bordering on nomination and as such a pre-election matter.
Consequently, the Apex court five-man panel, presided by Justice Inyang Okoro upheld the governorship election that produced Rev Hyacinth Alia, as the Benue state governor as legal.
However, both the Election Petitions Tribunal and the Court of Appeal Abuja, had affirmed Alia’s election as governor of Benue State, following his declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the March 18 governorship election.
The Court of Appeal had said it lacked the jurisdiction to hear the petition because it was a pre-election matter.
The court held that Uba ought to have prosecuted the forgery allegation against Sam Ode, the deputy governor at the high court.
It also held that Uba failed to prove allegations of forgery against Ode beyond reasonable doubt.
Not pleased with the judgments, Uba approached the apex court for redress.