Tribunal Upholds Dariye, Lar, Hassan's ElectionsAT the weekend, the case of embattled governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, was re-opened at the Federal High Court in Jos where he was charged with certificate forgery.It comes as the Election Petition Tribunal, also in Jos, re-affirmed the election of former governor of the state, Senator Joshua Dariye, as duly elected at the April 2011 polls conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) into the Plateau Central Senatorial District.According to the petitioner, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain in Benue, Chief Terver Kakhi, through his lead counsel, Mr. Femi Falana, who announced his appearance for him, Suswam is not qualified to be governor of Benue State.Both Suswam and the petitioner are members of the PDP. The party, PDP, was the first respondent; the governor, second respondent while the West African Examination Council (WAEC) was the third respondent.The petitioner was challenging Suswam's nomination and qualification, averring that PDP went against its rules and regulations guiding its primary elections as it failed to provide a level-playing ground, which eventually saw Suswam emerge as PDP governorship candidate.Apart from the manifold irregularities at the ward congresses, Kakhi argued that Suswam tendered two forged WAEC certificates. According to him, the governor claimed to have lost the first certificate issued to him, adding that that necessitated reapplication for a second.He said the WAEC official who helped Suswam forge the document was consequently sacked when it was discovered he would come to court to testify.The Judge, Mr. Justice Ambrose Allagoa, adjourned the case till Thursday, November 17 for the defence to prepare its response.Speaking with journalists outside the court, Kakhi said the governor went to Lagos, forged the document and dropped the same forged certificate with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).The Election Petition Tribunal in Jos also confirmed the election of the Senator representing Plateau South, Victor Lar and member, representing Jos North-North constituency in the state House of Assembly, Ibrahim Baba Hassan.The PDP candidate, Dr. Dauda Gowon, after the declaration of the result in favour of the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Dariye, went to court to challenge the result on the basis of some electoral irregularities. The same thing obtained when General Jeremiah Useni (rtd) of the Democratic People's Party (DPP) lost to the PDP candidate in the Southern Zone, Victor Lar. General Useni lost the petition.Also, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate in the Jos North-North, Benjamin Zoyong, lost his petition. In all the petitions, the allegations have been multiple voting, ballot stuffing, irregularities, intimidation, corruption, qualification to contest the election, rigging and other forms of electoral fraud.Chairman of the tribunal, Mr. Justice Suleiman Ambursa, who delivered the judgement concerning Dariye at the weekend, said all the allegations levelled against Dariye by Gowon remain unproved, stressing that he had failed to prove a prima facie case against the respondent (Dariye). He said that even if votes in areas of contention were subtracted from the total votes garnered by Dariye, the respondent would still remain the winner of the election.
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