The Supreme Court has fixed 2:00pm today for judgement in the appeals challenging the elections of Governors Samuel Ortom of Benue State and Umar Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State over the March 9, 2019 governorship elections. A seven-member panel of justices presided by Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour stood down to judgment to 2:00pm after lawyers in the matter argued their appeals. Earlier, counsel to Emmanuel Jime of the APC, Yusuf Ali (SAN) asked the panel to nullify the election of Ortom due to over-voting and non-compliance with the Electoral Act and INEC Guidelines particularly in 600 polling units after calling 59 witnesses. Ali said there is a disparity between the number of voters accredited by the smart card reader and the number recorded in the actual voting. He therefore concluded that the election was not properly collated by INEC and should be nullified. ADVERTISEMENT But counsel to INEC, Igu Uyinma argued that both APC and Jime have no oral or documentary evidence to rely on in their claims. He said only 59 witnesses for 600 polling units was not sufficient and the evidence amounted to dumping of documents on the court. Also, PDP and Governor Ortom counsels, Chris Uche (SAN) and Sebastine Hon (SAN) asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal and affirm the concurrent decisions of the Benue State Governorship Election Tribunal and Court of Appeal. They informed the apex court that Jime failed to prove the allegation of over-voting. In the Adamawa appeal by former governor, Jibrilla Bindow and the APC, Gordy Uche (SAN) asked the Supreme Court to nullify the results given to Governor Fintiri in 385 polling units. “If you deduct the illegal votes in these polling units, we won the election with 292, 710 votes while they had 275, 491 votes,” he said. But counsel to PDP and Governor Fintiri, Leonard Nzadon Esq and Magaji Mahmud (SAN) asked the court to dismiss the claims in the petition for being “fundamentally defective.
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