Senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the February 20 rerun election in Benue South, Daniel Onjeh, has filed a fresh petition before the Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Makurdi, the Benue State capital praying to be declared as winner of the poll.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Senator David Mark of the Peoples Democratic Party as the winner of the poll with a margin of more than 12,000 votes.
Onjeh who spoke with journalists shortly after filing the petition noted that evidence on the Certified True Copy of result declaration sheets obtained from INEC showed observed irregularities and noncompliance with Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).
He said “We have put in an air tight petition with the hope that justice would be done to it and we would be declared winner.”
He argued that results in his stronghold were either canceled or rejected without reason and cited the case of a particular polling unit in Ado Local Government where he won the PDP with landslide.
The respondents including Mark, PDP and INEC have 21 days to reply to the petition upon service, following which Onjeh and the APC would reply within seven days after which sitting would commence.
This is the second time Onjeh is going back to the tribunal. The first time was in 2015 and his petition led to the nullification of Mark’s election which gave rise to the rerun.
