Benue governor, Alia wins at Supreme Court

Benue State governor, Father Hyacinth Alia of the All Progressives Congress, APC has defeated the rival Peoples Democratic Party, PDP over appeal challenging his victory as winner of the governorship election.

The Supreme Court gave they clergy turned politician on Monday after the Counsel to PDP governorship candidate, Hon. Sebastian Uba withdrew from the suit.

Uba had challenged the victory of Alia of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

However, the Election Petitions Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, Abuja, upheld Alia’s election as Benue governor in line with the declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the March 18 governorship election.

The Court of Appeal had earlier ruled that it lacked the jurisdiction to hear the petition because it was a pre-election matter.
The court held that Uba should have prosecuted the forgery allegation against the deputy governor, Sam Ode, at the high court.

It also held that Uba failed to prove allegations of forgery against Ode beyond all reasonable doubt.

On Monday, the PDP candidate pursued the matter to the Supreme Court, and the apex court dismissed his appeal and affirmed Alia’s election.

Alia, a first-time governorship contestant had defeated PDP in Benue. Alia succeeded Samuel Ortom of the PDP who was governor of the state for eight years.