The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, Thursday, upheld the election of Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State as duly elected and returned in the 2019 governorship poll.
The appellate court dismissed the appeal filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate in the poll, Emmanuel Jime, for lacking in merit.
In a unanimous judgment, delivered by Justice Fred Oho, the court also resolved all the four issues raised against the appellants.
The court also awarded the sum of N150,000 fine against the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC Emmanuel Jime and his party.
Governor Ortom contested for re-election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after defecting from the APC.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, had reserved judgment in the appeal filed 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.
Surprisingly, 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 last week, 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 judgments by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
After entertaining argument from all the parties, the presiding Justice of the five-man Appeal Panel, Justice A A Begore, held that the court would communicate the date of the Judgment to all the parties in the Jime and APC appeal in a later date.
