Ahead of the rescheduled rerun of the Benue state All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primaries, the Benue Youths Forum (BYF) has held a meeting with INEC leadership in Abuja.
Terrence Kuanum, president of the BYF, who led other members of the group to Barrister Festus Okoye, the INEC commissioner for information and voter education, said the meeting was aimed at forestalling crises in the state ahead of the exercise.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Makurdi had Monday ordered a rerun of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election in 11 local government areas of the state.
The court also ordered that the election be held within 14 days from the date of judgement.
The order followed an appeal brought by one of the party’s governorship aspirants, Terhemba Sjija, challenging the lower court decision on his case against the APC governorship candidate, Reverend Father Hyacinth Alia.
Justice Gabriel Georgewill in his ruling agreed with Shija’s assertion that there was no valid primary election held on May 27, 2022, by APC for the nomination of its gubernatorial candidate, Fr. Alia, who was later declared the winner
The judge also agreed with APC on the rerun of June 9, 2022, which took place in 12 LGAs of the state, stating that the election was valid.
“Yes I have seen that APC did not conduct a valid primary election on the 27th of May 2022, reasons why the appeal panel ordered a fresh election that was conducted on the 9th of June 2022 in some local governments. In the interest of justice, I can not allow those voters in the remaining eleven local governments to be disenfranchised, therefore, APC should go back and conduct elections in 11 local governments within 14 days and INEC should recognise the winner after adding both election results as the gubernatorial candidate of the party,” the court held.
Meanwhile, the LGAs for the fresh primaries as ordered by the court include, Gboko, Gwer- East, Gwer-West, Guma, Katsina, Logo, Makurdi, Otukpo, Ukum, Tarka, and Vandeikya local Government Areas.
Earlier, a rerun was held on June 9, 2022, in 12 LGAs of Buruku, Kwande, Agatu, Konshisha, Ogbadibo, Ushongo, Oju Okpokwu, Ado, Ohimini Obi, and Apa respectively.
