The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has affirmed the election of the Deputy Speaker of Benue State House of Assembly, Mrs. Danladi Lami of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The National/State Election Petition Tribunal in Makurdi, Benue State, had on September 21 upheld Lami’s election as the member representing Ado State Constituency.
Lami’s election was challenged at the Tribunal by Mrs Agnes Uloko of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared her as winner of the poll.
But, Uloko approached the Tribunal with a petition, claiming among other things, that Lami forged the educational certificate she submitted to INEC and was not qualified to contest the election for Ado state constituency.
The Tribunal, in its judgement delivered by Justice Ory-Zik Okeorha, dismissed the petition and held that the petitioners’ claims of certificate forgery against the deputy speaker were not substantiated with credible evidence.
Dissatisfied with the Tribunal’s judgement, Uloko and the PDP approached the Court of Appeal for the final determination of their petition and an order setting aside the judgement of the Tribunal.
Delivering its judgement on Tuesday, the Appeal Court agreed with the Tribunal that variations in the names in different certificates belonging to a person did not necessarily amount to a grave violation that could disqualify a person, especially when a person tendered a statement on oath regarding change of name.
On the certificate forgery allegations, the appellate court held that no evidence was adduced by the appellants beyond hearsay.
The appellate court faulted the the appellants for not doing their “homework”, adding that, they did not call relevant bodies like the West African Examination Council, to speak to the exhibits.
“On the whole, this appeal is time-wasting.The appeal lacks merit,” the appellate court held and awarded a cost of 250,000 against the appellants.
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