The All Progressives Congress’ (APC) Benue State gubernatorial primary election was on Monday declared invalid by the Court of Appeal in Makurdi.
Within 14 days following its ruling, the Court ordered the party to hold fresh elections in 11 of the 23 Local Government Areas.
The APC’s governorship aspirant, Prof. Terhemba Shija, appealed the Makurdi Federal High Court’s decision to reject his lawsuit challenging the results of the APC gubernatorial primary election in the state, and the court issued the order in response.
Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Biobelle Georgewill, held that the appellant, Prof. Shija “was able to prove that there was no gubernatorial primary election conducted by the APC on May 27, 2022.”
However, it determined that Shija had not established that the APC had not organised a rerun governorship election on June 9, 2022.
The appellate court also mandated that the APC and Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, its governorship candidate, pay Prof. Shija N2 million in damages.
Gboko, Gwer- East, Gwer-West, Guma, Katsina-Ala, Logo, Makurdi, Otukpo, Ukum, Tarka, and Vandeikya are among the LGAs that were affected by the court’s rerun order.
In response, Prof. Shija’s counsel, Ken Ikonne, stated that even though the court declared the APC candidate’s election invalid, he was dissatisfied with the ruling.
He said, “The court nullified Alia’s election but held that since I did not challenge the primary election conducted in 12 LGAs on June 9, 2022, that before he would be nominated they should go and hold rerun elections in the 11 LGAs that were nullified.
“But I disagree because the court has no powers to order rerun elections and the defendants didn’t ask for it. So I am bringing a cross appeal against that aspect of the judgement. I will file an application for stay or an injunction pending appeal so that the APC does not go ahead to hold their primaries pending the outcome of the appeal.”
In his response, the Legal Adviser to the APC, Fidelis Mnyim, said there was no cause for alarm stressing that the judgement had opened two options to for APC.
He said, “The first option is that we will comply with the court directive and conduct a rerun primaries in the 11 LGs within the next 14 days and the second is to approach the supreme court within 14days.
“We, however, would apply for the hard copy of the judgement, study it critically and advise the party accordingly. But in my opinion, either of the two options are in favour of the party.”