The Benue State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Makurdi, the state capital, has thrown out the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) petition against the election of Rev Fr Governor Hyacinth Alia.
Delivering judgement on Saturday, the tribunal dismissed the petition filed by the PDP and its governorship candidate, Titus Uba.
The Chairman of the 3-man panel of justices, Justice Ibrahim Karaye, in his judgement, held that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to entertain the petition as the matters raised before it were pre-election issues as captured in section 285 of the Electoral Act.
Not satisfied with the declaration of Alia as the winner by the INEC, the PDP and Uba approached the tribunal seeking to overturn the result of the election in their favour.
They asked the tribunal to nullify the election, claiming the candidate did not comply with the electoral law and purportedly submitted false documents to INEC.
However, the tribunal, in its judgement, the petitioner ought to have pursued his case of non-qualification and the nomination of Governor Alia by the APC and the allegation of forged certificate and false information on form EC9 against his deputy, Sam Ode, before the INEC was, beyond the Federal High Court.
The tribunal said the petitioner should have filed for an appeal for the earlier suit of the issue dismissed by the court at the Appeal Court, instead of proceeding to the tribunal.