From Scholastica Onyeka, Makurdi
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State and her candidate in the 2023 Governorship Election, Engr Titus Uba, have appealed the judgment of the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in the state which upheld the election of Governor Hyacinth Alia as Governor of the state.
The Tribunal, headed by Justice Ibrahim Mohammed Karaye, on September 24, dismissed the petition by PDP and Engr Uba challenging the return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of Governor Hyacinth Alia as the winner of the 2023 Gubernatorial election in the state.
Justice Karaye, who delivered the lead judgment, said that the issues raised by the petitioners were pre-election and ought to have been entertained by the Federal High Court and not the tribunal.
A statement signed by the State Publicity Secretary of PDP, Bemgba Iortyom, and made available to newsmen in Makurdi on Wednesday, said the party, “through its team of lawyers is before the Court of Appeal challenging the judgment on sixteen grounds notably amongst which is the Tribunal’s error in law on the issue of its jurisdiction to entertain both petitions.
“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.”
The PDP and its candidate, while restating faith in the Judiciary said they remain 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,” the PDP said.
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