The Benue Zone B Local Government Election Petition Tribunal has dismissed a petition challenging the outcome of a councillorship election, ruling that the case was a pre-election matter and that the petitioner failed to pay the required security cost.
In its ruling, the tribunal held that the petitioner failed to prove that the All Progressives Congress, APC in Benue State had formally submitted his name to the Benue State Independent Electoral Commission, BSIEC.
The court described the claim as a mere assumption without concrete evidence.
The panel further ruled that the petitioner was not a candidate in the election, having failed to complete the necessary electoral process.
It added that issues such as the dissolution of a party’s executive committee and the nomination of candidates fall strictly under pre-election matters, which should have been addressed before the election rather than through a post-election petition.
The tribunal criticized the petitioners for failing to substantiate their claims, stating that they had merely “dumped their documents” on the court without effectively proving their case.
