MAKURDI—Governor Gabriel Suswam of the
PDP has challenged the declaration of Senator
Barnabas Gemade of the APC as winner of
the Benue North East Senatorial District
election, at Benue State National and State
Houses of Assembly elections petition
tribunal sitting in Makurdi, the state capital.
Suswam’s Counsel, Mr. Andrew Wombo, filed
the petition on the grounds that the
Independent National Electoral Commission,
INEC, failed to abide by the provisions of the
electoral guidelines in the conduct of the
election.
Confirming the decision of the Governor to
challenge the outcome of the March 28,
senatorial election, Wombo told reporters
yesterday in Makurdi, that the action was
premised on the fact that INEC omitted to
collate all the results of votes cast at certain
levels in the area.
According to him, “after the polls, we applied
for the inspection of the election materials
and INEC availed us the certified true copies
and after going through we discovered that
the actual winner based on what transpired
at the polling units was Suswam and not
Gemade.
“We discovered that at three wards in Logo
Local Government Area, elections were
conducted and the results from the said
polling units entered in the relevant INEC
forms duly signed by the electoral officers in
the said wards, but to our greatest surprise
the results were not entred in the final
result that INEC declared.”