The Court of Appeal sitting in
Abuja, on Thursday, reserved judgement in the appeal entered against Governor
Samuel Ortom of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by the candidate of the All
Progressives Congress (APC), in the last governorship election in Benue state.
The Governorship Election
Petition Tribunal sitting in Makurdi had on 7th October 2019, delivered
judgement in favour of Governor Ortom.
Irked by the ruling of the
Tribunal, the APC candidate approached the appellate court, urging it to set
aside the decision of the trial court.
Counsel to Governor Ortom and PDP
had on Tuesday, 19th November, received a notice of hearing from the Court of
Appeal, Makurdi Division, informing them that the court would hear the appeal
in Makurdi on Thursday, 21st November.
Controversially, the Court of
Appeal, Abuja division also sent a notice of appeal, same day, informing the
legal team of the governor and the PDP to proceed to Abuja, for a hearing
slated for Thursday, 21st November.
At the hearing in Abuja Thursday,
Counsel to Jime and APC, Yusuf Alli (SAN), maintained that the election which
brought Ortom as Governor did not comply with the provisions of the law.
He also argued that the card
readers deployed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were
not used in some areas to the conduct of the election, he, therefore, prayed
the appeal panel to upturn the decision of the Tribunal.
In their separate arguments in
support of their briefs of appeal, Counsel to Ortom, Sebastian Hon (SAN); that
of INEC, Offiong Offiong (SAN) and Chris Uche (SAN) of the PDP, urged the
appeal panel to, not only dismiss the appeal, but also award cost to Jime and
APC.
The trio argued that the
Appellant failed to provide witnesses “both in quantity and in quality”, at the
trial court, to substantiate the claim that there were irregularities in the
conduct of the poll.
The counsel maintained that the
issue of card readers, which the Appellant solely relied on, had been settled
in various judgements by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
On the issue of noncompliance
with the rules guiding the conduct of elections, the counsels to Respondents
argued that, mere guidelines or election manuals from INEC could not have
nullified the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), adding that
the Appellant did not in any way, cite any section of the Electoral Act or the
1999 constitution that was breached during the conduct of the election.
Responding, Chairman of the 5-man
Appeal Panel, Justice AA Begore, said the court would communicate the date of
the Judgement on the Jime’s appeal to the parties in the matter.
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