Benue Election: Akume Petitions Tribunal, Asked To Be Declared Winner

Sen. George Akume

Sen. George Akume, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Benue North-West Senatorial Zone, has prayed the Governorship, National and State Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal in Makurdi to declare him winner of the Feb. 23 elections.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the tribunal is expected to commence sitting in Makurdi after it has received petitions and responses from such respondents.

Akume and the APC in their 336-paged petition obtained on Thursday from the tribunal’s secretariat in Makurdi, is challenging the decision the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that returned Mr Emmanuel Orker-Jev of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the election.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the tribunal is expected to commence sitting in Makurdi after it has received petitions and responses from such respondents.

NAN reports that Orker-Jev of the PDP polled 157,726 to Akume’s 115,422 votes.

The petitioners in the suit (Akume and APC), in an alternative prayer, urged the court to order fresh polls where elections did not hold or were marred by malpractices or irregularities, especially in polling units within Buruku, Guma, Gboko, Gwer West and Gwer East registration areas/wards.

The petitioners said they will rely on 118 witnesses to prosecute their case, which is premised on two grounds; that the first respondent (Mr Emmanuel Orker Jev) was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes and that the election was invalid by alleged corruption and non compliance with Electoral Act 2010.

They also averred that the series of letters of complaints by them to the INEC or its agents while the elections were ongoing were neglected.

“The total number of accredited voters as recorded in Forms EC8C(1), EC8D(1) and EC8(1) by INEC agents manually are higher than the accredited voters recorded in the Card Reader Accreditation Sheet for the Presidential and National Assembly Elections, held on 23rd day of February, 2019.

“The number of votes cast in the local government areas of Buruku, Gboko, Guma, Gwer East, Gwer West, Makurdi and Tarka are higher than the number of accredited voters in each of the local government area above mentioned.”

Akume further alleged that elections were not conducted in compliance with the Act in some parts of Bruruku, Gboko, Guma, Gwer West, Gwer East, Makurdi wards.

“Some polling units in Buruku, Gboko, Guma, Gwer East, Gwer West, the total number of votes cast at the election far exceeded the total number of the PVCs collected by voters in those polling units and registration areas.”

The petitioners also alleged that Mr Mike Gusa, the Benue Commissioner for Justice, was buying votes on the Election Day at Tse-Biaga Open Space polling unit between N500 to N1,000 with the aide of thugs, which were answerable to him and the PDP.