BENUE: Akume asks tribunal to declare him winner of senatorial election

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.

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.”