Appeal Court dashes Suswam’s hope of returning to Senate

The hope of former Governor of Benue State, Dr. Gabriel Suswam, returning to the Senate has been dashed by the Court of Appeal.

The appellate court sitting in Abuja on Wednesday, November 1, declared that Suswam was not validly elected as senator representing Benue North East in the February 25 election.

The three-man panel upturned the judgement of the Benue State National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal which returned Suswam of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the Senate.

The tribunal had nullified the election victory of Senator Emmanuel Udende of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Justice Abimbola Obaseki-Adejumo, who read the judgement, said the tribunal came to an erroneous conclusion having wrongly evaluated the evidence presented before it by the parties.

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The panel said: “The judgement of the tribunal delivered on 8/9/2023 is hereby set aside. The return of the Appellant as the winner of the Benue North East senatorial election that was held on February 25 is hereby affirmed.

“Parties are to bear their respective cost.”

The National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Udende winner of the senatorial election after he polled a total of 135,573 votes to defeat Suswam who got 112,231 votes.

The tribunal, however, cancelled 51,895 votes entered for Udende and cancelled 21,229 votes entered for Suswam.

With the subtraction, Suswam got 90,590 votes against Udende’s 82,699.

The appellate court, however, nullified the tribunal’s decision.

The Star