The Benue State Governorship Elections Petition Tribunal has declared catholic Priest, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia as winner of the poll.
Daily Deport Nigeria reports that the tribunal in its sitting in Makurdi on Saturday upheld the victory of Governor Alia of the All Progressives Congress in the March 18 election.
This was as the tribunal dismissed the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party and its governorship candidate, Titus Uba, who had challenged the outcome of election.
The petition by Uba and the APC was dismissed by the tribunal over its lack of jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Alia winner of the election after scoring 473,933 votes ahead of his closest rival Uba, who polled 223,913 votes
The three-man panel of justices led by Justice Ibrahim Karaye, ruled that the tribunal has no jurisdiction to entertain the petition as the matter raised before the tribunal are pre-election issues as captured in section 285 of the Electoral Act.
