The Benue State Election Tribunal has declared Senator Gabriel Suswam of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the 25 February Senatorial election in the Benue North East Senatorial District.
Suswam defeated Emmanuel Udende of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the tribunal and was returned on Friday, after a judgement that lasted for over three hours.
The Chairman of a three-man Tribunal, Justice Ory-Zik Ikeorha, and a member of the panel held that the petitioner, Suswam proved the allegation of over-voting, mutilation, and cancellation of results and election malpractices in five out of the seven local government areas of the senatorial district.
The Tribunal chairman discounted 51,895 votes from Udende’s tally and 21,229 from Suswam’s before recalculating their final votes. Afterward, the PDP candidate had 90,570 votes to beat the incumbent Udende who was left with 82, 699 votes
One of the Tribunal members, however, disagreed with the decision, noting that the petitioner did not prove how over-voting took place to warrant the cancellation, a point counsel to Udende said he would appeal
