Supreme Court Dismisses Appeal Against Benue Gov. Alia

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed an appeal against the election of Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia as the Governor of Benue State.

The dismissal followed the withdrawal of the appeal by counsel to Mr. Titus Uba of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Sebastian Hon.

Persecondnews reported that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Fr. Alia of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the governorship election held on March 18, having polled 473,933 votes to defeat Uba, who garnered 223,913 votes.

Uba had challenged the victory of Gov. Alia at the tribunal.

However, both the State Election Petitions Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, Abuja, had affirmed Fr. Alia’s election as governor of Benue following his declaration by INEC as the winner of the March 18 governorship election.

The appellate court 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 Mr. 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.

Details shortly……