The Benue state election petition tribunal sitting in Makurdi, Thursday struck out the petition filed by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress’ (APC), Daniel Onjeh, against Senator David Mark of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in the re-run election.
Delivery her judgment, Justice Chinyere Gloria Anulube said that Onjeh filed the petition after the 21 days stipulated by the constitution has elapsed.
Some party and security agents in Obio/Akpor LGA have commended the peaceful conduct of the re-run election in the wards and units of the area.
The agents, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) after the exercise in the area on Saturday, said that the election was also free, fair and transparent.
Mr Henry Ohia, a PDP agent in Ward 2, Unit 11, said he was satisfied with the way the re-run election was conducted.
According to him, I am satisfied with the conduct of the election in my area and I wish that subsequent elections will be like this in the state.
Also speaking, the APC agent, Godwin Onukem, said that everything concerning the exercise was fine.
He specifically commended the card reader, saying it was very effective.
Another PDP agent, Anele Wachukwu, who alleged the use of fake materials in Ward 16, Unit 17 caused voters to stop voting, said that his party later directed that they should allow the election to go on.
He said that he raised the alarm because he allegedly did not see INEC signature on the result sheet but after much explanation from the INEC officials and the party directives, the election went on smoothly.
A voter in Ward 15, Unit 8 of the LGA, Mr Awaji Vincent, expressed confidence in the electoral process, especially in the card reader and security operatives.
He stated that the election was credible.
Mrs Justina Nwoke, the Deputy Superintendent of the Nigeria Civil Defence Corps in Ward 2, Unit 10 and 11, said she was happy with the peaceful conduct of the election.
According to her, if elections in the state will continue to be peaceful in every unit, ward and local government, the people will always be ready to go out and vote.
A police officer, Sgt. Philip Etim, urged the people of the state to continue with such a peaceful conduct of election.
Many of the voters waited after voting untill the end of the election to hear the results in their respective polling units.
Prof. Mahmoud Yukubu, the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Wednesday decried the cost of conducting re-run elections in the country.
Yukubu made this known at a National Conference for Justices of the Court of Appeal and Election Petition Tribunal Judges with the theme “2015 Election Petition Tribunals and Appeals” in Abuja.
He said it was more challenging to manage re-run elections arising from candidates’ disqualification.
According to him, while it is appreciated that the courts treat each case on its merits, certain trends point to conflicting judgments on similar cases by different Judicial Division of the Court of Appeal.
He said there were instances where elections were nullified and INEC was ordered to conduct a re-run simply for the sake of conducting elections in a specific polling unit.
Yakubu said after wasting time and resources, the outcome of such election did not make any material difference to the original result declared by INEC which made substantial compliance with the Electoral Act.
He cited the case of Lafia/Obi Federal Constituency in Nasarawa State, where Appeal Court ordered INEC to conduct a re-run in Angwan Doka Polling Unit 004 with just over 1,000 registered voters.
He said the candidate declared winner by INEC in the 2015 General election pooled over 74, 000 votes while the runner-up had a little over 70,000 votes.
Mahmoud said the number of registered voters in the polling unit could not have altered the result in any way and even the voters were aware of the reality.
“When INEC conducted a re-run election in that polling unit only 25 voters turned up to cast their votes and the election which has no utilitarian value cost the nation N3.2 million,” he said.
He said that 680 election cases were filed against INEC after the 2015 General elections and 580 out of these cases were dismissed by the tribunals and Court of Appeal.
Yukubu said that the commission had no judicial powers over the outcome of the elections it had conducted.
According to him, each time an appeal court determines a case, the commission is always ordered to undertake one form of consequential action.
In her speech, the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, said that the court received 749 appeals emanating from the decisions of the various election petition tribunals.
Bulkachuwa said in spite of the challenges of time, the justices of the court had managed to dispose the appeals within the stipulated period as required by law.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has suspended the conduct of the re-run election in Langtang South Constituency of Plateau State, scheduled for Saturday.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner for Plateau State, Godwin Kwanga, told reporters Friday in Jos that the suspension stemmed from an interim order of a Federal High Court.
He, however, stated that supplementary elections in Pankshin North and Pankshin South would go on as scheduled.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday announced that it would conduct re-run election in two state constituencies in Bayelsa on March 5, 2016.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Mr Austen Okojie, disclosed this during a meeting with management staff of INEC’s office in the state, in Yenagoa.
He said that the meeting was to arrange on how to make the exercise hitch free.
Okojie said the two constituencies were Ekeremor III and Southern Ijaw IV.
He, however, said that the election would not take place in Olodiama, Ward IV and polling units 20-30 in Foropa, Ward 14.
He expressed the readiness of the commission to conduct fair and credible poll and urged all stakeholders to support the commission to attain the objective.
A Senator from Anambra Central, Annie Okonkwo has faulted plans by political parties that participated in the 2015 general election to conduct fresh primaries for the rerun senatorial election in Anambra Central.
He argued that the move was “illegal and unconstitutional” and would violate the Electoral Act because the time scheduled by the Independent National electoral commission (INEC) for parties to substitute candidates expired last year.
Okonkwo, who is the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra Central, said, in a statement Wednesday, that “it would amount to an illegality to allow PDP and APC to field fresh candidates for the re- run election in the Anambra Central senatorial district.
“The court did not ask political parties to conduct fresh primaries. The court only ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a rerun within 90 days.
“Ngige, who is the only person that can contest the rerun in the All Progressives Congress (APC), was quoted to have said that he would not participate in the election.
“So, it is laughable to read that Ekwunife, who the Court of Appeal disqualified and nullified her election has defected to APC to participate in the rerun. Though, she has been disqualified by APC.
“In the recent judgment, the three-man appellate panel led by Justice A.H. Yahya had nullified the March 28 election, sayingthat Ekwunife did not meet the provision of the Electoral Act because she wasn’t a product of a valid primary,” Okonkwo said.
He contended that if APC or any other political party go ahead to field a new candidate and wins the rerun, it would cause another legal battle because those who will emerge, will not be product of a valid primary.
Okonkwo said the right thing for parties to do is to allow those, who participated in the primary to take part in the rerun.
He insisted that “if Ngige is no longer interested in the rerun, APC won’t be able to participate.”
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has fixed judgment for January 29 in the dispute among members of the PDP, including Okonkwo over the party’s candidate for the party in the senatorial zone.