Benue Petition Tribunal upholds Ortom’s election

MAKURDI—Benue State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Makurdi, the state capital, has upheld the election of Governor Samuel Ortom.

In a three-hour judgement delivered yesterday by Justice Elizabeth Karatu, the Tribunal dismissed the petition of Terhemen Tarzoor, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governorship candidate at the last general elections for lack of diligent prosecution.

After assuming jurisdiction to entertain the matter and recognizing Tarzoor’s locus standi to challenge the emergence of the APC candidate,  Justice Karatu anchored her judgement on the provisions of Section 177 and 138(1)(c) of the 1999 Constitution as amended and  held that Governor Ortom met all the criteria for being recognized as the validly elected  candidate of the APC.

She went further to point out that the petitioner failed to provide valid evidences to show that the APC did not hold its primaries as required by law.

According to her, the petitioners witness (one) made mockery of the Tribunal by presenting to it a report of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on the APC primaries which was not written on an INEC letter headed paper nor signed by the relevant persons.

Justice Karatu further pointed out the failure of the petitioner to spell out the relief being sought in the matter.

She held that “by the provisions of Section 140(2) of the 2010 Electoral Act as amended, in the face of the paucity of facts presented before the Tribunal, the petitioner has to succeed on the strength of his own case.”

She stated that this principle was discountenanced by the petitioner in the course of the trial thereby dealing a blow to his petition.

Justice Karatu added: “The petitioner did not ask for the conduct of fresh elections, the court therefore cannot grant a relief that was not pleaded. The petition is therefore dismissed and the return of the First Respondent (Governor Ortom) is thereby upheld.”

Benue Petition Tribunal upholds Ortom’s election