Appeal Court upholds Moro election as PDP candidate

An Appeal Court sitting in Makurdi on Thursday upheld the election of Comrade Abba Moro as the substantive candidate of the  People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for Benue South Senatorial district in the party’s primary election held in October, last year.

Daily Trust reports that an aggrieved participant of the PDP primary election, Joseph Ojobo, who is a member of the State House of Assembly representing Ogbadibo constituency had dragged Moro before the court and asked it to declare him (Ojobo) winner of the election.

Ojobo contended earlier at the lower court that he was the leading candidate of the October 7, 2018 primary election of the PDP for the Idoma-speaking district before the exercise was declared inconclusive occasioned by insecurity.

He had therefore asked the court to declare him winner.

But the Federal High Court in Makurdi which Ojobo first approached however struck out the case, which made him to further seek redress at the appellate court where he also challenged the primary election that produced his opponent, Moro as the senatorial flag bearer of the party on the ground of irregularities.

However, the Appeal court has upheld the judgement of the earlier court, stressing that the appellant could not prove his case against reasonable doubt.

Justice Onyekachi Ajah, in her judgement held that the lower court did not erred in throwing out the appellant suit because it was a right thing to be done having gone through all the arguments of various parties.

Ajah averred that there were overwhelming evidence before her to prove that the first election of October 4, 2018 was inconclusive and the plaintiff (Joe Ojobo) consented to it and also participated fully in the supplementary primary election where the first respondent (Moro) scored the highest number of votes and was declared winner  in line with the section 87 of the 2010 electoral law as amended.

The judge also went further to explain that the appellant failed to prove that there was no accreditation before the primary which he fully participated, emphasising that there was no denial of fair hearing at the lower court between the appellant, 1st, 2nd and 3rd respondents, upon which, the lower court substantially based their judgement on merit which her honourable court has upheld.

“Having gone through the various arguments put before me and having saw the decision of the lower court, coupled with the fact that the appellant failed to prove his case beyond reasonable doubt, I hereby dismissed the appeal and upheld the decision of the lower court in favour of the 1st, Respondent, Comrade Moro, 2nd respondent, PDP and 3rd respondent INEC,” Ajah said.

Reacting to the judgement, lead counsel to the appellant (Ojobo), Chief Agbo Madaki, said that he was not satisfied with the ruling because most of his motions and objections raised during hearing were not mentioned in the judgement.

Madaki said he would get certified true copy of the judgement to study it and possibly advise his client to approach the Supreme Court for overall decision on the matter.

On the other hand, the counsel to Moro who is now the senator-elect, Barrister Ken Ikoni, described the judgement as the affirmation of the collective mandate given to his client by people in the senatorial district.

Ikoni hailed the judgment and expressed optimism that judgement would still be given in favour of his client even if the opponent goes to the Supreme Court. He said there won’t be any basis for them  to go further.