THE Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal has sacked Gabriel Suswam from the Senate.
A three-member panel of the court on Wednesday, November 1, unanimously declared that the Benue state former governor who represented the North-East senatorial district in the state was not the legitimate winner of the senatorial election in the state on February 25.
The court voided the certificate of return issued to Suswam of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
It directed The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to give a new certificate of return to Emmanuel Udende of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The panel criticised the Benue State National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal’s decision to nullify Udende’s election and return Suswam to the Senate.
The appellate court said the tribunal reached an incorrect result after upholding Suswam’s petition to contest Udende’s victory and incorrectly assessed the evidence brought before it by the parties.
Consequently, the court declared that it saw merit in the APC candidate’s appeal, and it overturned the tribunal’s decision.
INEC declared Udende the winner of the senatorial election after he polled 135,573 votes to defeat Suswam, who got 112,231 votes.
Suswam challenged the outcome and went to the tribunal, claiming that excessive voting, anomalies, changes, and results fabrication had tainted the election.
The tribunal ruled that Suswam proved that anomalies occurred in five of the senatorial district’s seven local government areas.
The tribunal cancelled 21,229 votes cast for Suswam and 51,895 votes cast for Udende.
Suswam had 90,590 votes left after deducting the padded votes claimed by the tribunal, while Udende had 82,699.
The panel was headed by Ori Zik-Ikeoha.
However, the appellate court overturned the ruling in Udende’s favour on Wednesday.
