By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, on Monday, reserved its judgement on two separate appeals that the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its candidate, Emmanuel Udende, filed to sack a former Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, from the Senate.

The appellants are praying the court to set aside the judgement of the Benue State National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, which invalidated their election victory and declared Suswam of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the valid winner of the Benue North East Senatorial seat.

A three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Abimbola Osarugue  Obaseki Adejumo, adjourned to deliver judgement in the matter, after all the parties adopted their final briefs of argument on Monday.

While adopting his processes, Udende’s lead counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, urged the court to allow the appeal and set aside the judgement the tribunal delivered in favour of Suswam on September 8

Awomolo, SAN, told the court that Suswam had after he lost in the election that held on February 25, filed a petition before the tribunal wherein he complained about results from seven Local Government Areas, LGA, alleging that there were irregularities in 474 polling units.

 He told the court that the sole ground that Suswam raised in the petition, was that his client, Udende, did not secure the majority of lawful votes cast, adding that there were cancellations, mutilations, alterations, violence as well as non compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

He alleged that the tribunal went beyond the case the petitioner brought before it and “engaged itself in investigation, interrogation and painstakingly looking at figures.”

Awomolo, SAN, recalled that though Suswam called only 8 witnesses, none of them were presiding officers from any of the polling units in the state.

“The petitioner merely tendered a total of 2,915 exhibits from the Bar, comprising of INEC forms. No single witness was brought to link the evidence before the tribunal,” counsel to the Appellant added.

He argued that the tribunal, on its own, embarked on the voyage of tabulating votes from the disputed polling units.

On its part, the APC stressed that the appellate court had in an interlocutory judgement it delivered on September 30, expunged evidence of 11 witnesses that Suswam and the PDP produced before the tribunal.

It told the court that the petitoners had by their own averrement, admitted that they lost the election with a total of 23, 342 votes.

The APC maintained that evidence of the eight witnesses that eventually testified for the petitioners were not sufficient to prove that there were infractions in 474 polling units in the state on the election day.

“None of the witnesses was a polling unit agent,” the APC argued, insisting that the judgement of tribunal was not based on any credible evidence that was laid by the petitioners.

The Appellants, therefore, urged the court to nullify the judgement of the tribunal and re-affirm the declaration of Udende as winner of the election.

However, Suswam’s lawyer, Mr. Paul Erokoro, SAN, urged the appellate court to dismiss the appeal and uphold the judgement of the tribunal.

Erokoro, SAN, argued that his client successfully demonstrated through documentary evidence, that the votes that were credited to the APC candidate by INEC, were unlawful.

He urged the court to discountenance the argument that his client did not produce necessary witnesses to testify before the tribunal,  noting that it was “practically impossible” to expect the petitioner to call over 400 witnesses from all the polling units.

Similarly, counsel to the PDP, Mr. Paul Ogbole, SAN, also urged the court to dismiss the appeal as lacking in merit.

He argued that section 137 of the Electoral Act 2022, provided the room for a petitioner to rely on documentary evidence to prove his case.

“The provision is very novel as it tends to cure mischief and reduce workload on tribunals.

“Once evidence is tendered and marked admissible, judgement could be given accordingly, based on the said evidence.

“That is what happened in this case. The tribunal held that the evidence was credible and admissible for the purpose of doing justice to the matter before it,” Ogbole, SAN, added.

After it had listened to all the parties, the Appeal Court panel reserved its judgement.

It will be recalled that INEC had declared Udende as winner of the senatorial election after he polled a total of 135,573 votes to defeat Senator Suswam who garnered 112,231 votes.

Not satisfied with the outcome of the election, Suswam approached the tribunal on the ground that it was marred by over-voting, irregularities, alterations and falsification of results.

In its judgement, the tribunal held that Suswam successfully established his case that irregularities took place in five out of seven LGAs in the Senatorial District.

The tribunal cancelled 51,895 votes entered for Senator Udende and also cancelled 21,229 votes entered for Senator Suswam.

After subtracting the padded votes, Senator Suswam was left with 90,590 while Senator Udende scored 82,699 votes.

Upholding the petition, the Justice Ori Zik-Ikeoha led panel entered judgement in Suswam’s favour.