A former Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, has successfully reclaimed his senatorial seat at the Election Petitions Tribunal, sitting in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, which on Friday sacked Sen. Memga Udende of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and pronounced him the rightful winner of the February 25, 2023 Benue North-east senatorial election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared that Udende won the election, having polled 135, 575, against Suswam’s 112, 231 votes.
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However, dissatisfied, Suswam, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, challenged the result at the Tribunal citing irregularities in the election.
He claimed that he was actually the winner of the election based on lawful votes cast.
The three panel of judges led by Justice Ory-Zik Ikeoha, in its ruling upheld Suswam’s petition, saying it used documentary evidence to arrive at its decision.
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Justice Ikeoha explained that it preferred documentary evidence to determine the issue of over-voting, as alleged by Suswam instead of relying witness’ verbal testimonies.
She stated that the evidence proved that there were actually electoral malpractices and irregularities in five local government areas within the constituency, adding that this altered the outcome of the election.
According to her, based on the evidence before her, Suswam got a total of 90, 590 votes while Udende scored only 82, 699 and was, therefore, ordered to vacate his seat for Suswam.