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ACN Reacts to Benue Governorship Tribunal Ruling
Newsdiaryonline Fri Aug 19,2011
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Benue State chapter wishes
to salute her teeming supporters for your courage, patience and
perseverance while we wait for the determination of our
Governorship Election petition pending before the Tribunal on
its merit.
We have absolute trust and confidence in the distinguished panel
of Judges of the Tribunal and with the quality of evidence we
have before them, the stolen mandate shall be reclaimed.
Today, the Honourable Tribunal ruled on the motions that were
moved and argued in the last sitting by the 3 respondents
(Gabriel Torwua Suswam, the PDP and INEC). Out of these, 3 were
overruled, 1 partly granted and the other on the issue of
qualification (Ground 3 of our petition) was granted in their
favour and accordingly struck out. The Tribunal declined
jurisdiction on the certificate forgery issue even though they
acknowledged that, our arguments and authorities cited were
overwhelming. They however took their decision based on the
ruling in the case of Prof Saror.
We are therefore calling on all our supporters to remain calm as
all hope is not lost. The other 2 grounds of our petition are
sufficient enough to win the petition for Prof Steve Ugbah and
the ACN. So far in Nigeria, it is only the Benue Governorship
Election petition Tribunal that has declined jurisdiction on the
issue of qualification/presentation of a forged certificate to
INEC. In Kebbi, the CPC won the House of Assembly seat on issue
of certificate forgery so is Jigawa where the Tribunal invited
the Principal of the School where the Governor graduated from,
to come and tender his WAEC certificate in court. In Edo, WAEC
tendered a certificate in favour of the Majority Leader of the
House, Hon. Philip Shuaibu through a subpoena and many others.
Finally, our petition is still very much alive and strong and
shall be prosecuted to its logical end to reclaim our mandate.
The next hearing date has been fixed for September 6, 2011. We
are going to appeal the ruling immediately.
Comrade Abba Yaro
State Chairman.
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