Taraba Judgement: What Is Good For Taraba State Should Be Good For Benue State

Just yesterday, the Taraba state governorship election petition tribunal that sat in Abuja nullified the election of Governor Ishaku Darius of the PDP in favor of Hajia Aisha Alhassan of APC. The decision was based on the ground that Architect Ishaku Darius was not validly nominated by the PDP in contravention of Sections 78, 85 and 87 of the Electoral Act(EA 2010). Specifically, the tribunal held that the PDP never had legal candidate for the Taraba poll.

If we are to go by the judgement, then it will be fair for the Benue state election tribunal to nullify the election of Governor Samuel Orthom of APC because his nomination contravened S 78(b)(1)(2), 85(1) and 85(2) of the Electoral Act as well.

Governor Orthom's Illegitimate Nomination:
According to INEC's timetable for 2015 General election, primary election of candidate was slated for October 2 and December 11, 2014.

The APC Governorship primary election for Benue state was originally slated for December 4/5 2014, but it wasn't held. It was again shifted to December 11, 2014(deadline) but NO primary election was held on the said day. No report that any delegate participated in ANY primary election on that day. The party 'elders' settled for a consensus candidate before the midnight of the day. Even the pro-APC Nations Newspaper reported that;

"Chief Ortom emerged after other governorship aspirants stepped down for him at the end of a close door meeting brokered by the senate minority leader, Senator George Akume, in Makurdi."
www.thenationonlineng.net/benue-apc-settles-ortom-governorship-candidate/

In fact, the five other APC aspirants including, Emmanuel Jime, Mike Iordye, Akange Audu, Sen Joseph Waku and Prof Steve Ugbah released a statement on December 12, 2014 to REJECT the arrangement of the so-called party elders in Benue state (see here www.leadership.ng/news/394871/benue-apc-primaries-5-guber-aspirants-reject-ortom).

Further more, INEC was NOT present at the dead of the night to witness the illegitimate arrangement that was held inside somebody's parlour. Let us no forget that Goodluck Jonathan though a PDP consensus candidate, went through formal primaries to fulfill the Electoral Act.

APC Has No Legal Gubernatorial Candidate For Benue state:
Going by the above, the arrangement that brought Samuel Orthom as the APC candidate for Benue state governorship election contravenes sections 78(b)(1)(2) and85(1)(2) of the Electoral Act 2010.

Section 78 (b) (1)(2) of the Electoral Act states: In the case of nomination to the position of Governorship candidate, a political party shall where they intend to sponsor candidates:

(i) hold special congress in each of the Local Government Areas of the States with delegates voting for each of the aspirants at the congress to be held in designated centres on specified dates.

(ii) the aspirant with the highest number of vote at the end of the voting shall be declared the winner of the primaries of the party and aspirant’s name shall be forwarded to the commission as the candidate of the party, for the particular state.

The arrangement that brought Orthom never met the above condition. Hence, the APC technically has no candidate for Benue state governorship election 2015. There is no record that APC Benue delegates endorsed Samuel Orthom as candidate through voice votes or ballot box. There is also no record that INEC witnessed any Benue APC governorship primary election on or before December 11, 2014 which is in contravento to S85 of the Electoral Act.

The PDP candidate Terhemen Tarzor should have been declared as the legitimate winner of the election by INEC and the Tribunal.

INEC's and Judicial Glaring Hypocrisy:
The position of INEC on Taraba and Benue states reeks double standard. While they testified that they never witnessed ANY primary legitimate PDP primary for Taraba state governorship contest, the FAILED to testify same for Benue state. This issue though part of PDP's petition, must be seriously pursued by the PDP at the Court of Appeal to reclaim Benue state to the people.

The Petition tribunal in Benue state unfortunately dismissed the issue on "technical" ground in the rulling on September 21, 2015 in order to keep Orthom in power. This is double standard from the Judiciary. You can't nullify A and Uphold B when they bother on the same matter. I'm optimistic that the Court of Appeal will upturn the verdict.

What is good for Taraba should be good for Benue.!!!