Appeal court upholds Ortom’s election

The court of appeal sitting in Abuja has upheld the election of Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue state.

Delivering the verdict on Thursday, the court dismissed the appeal filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Emmanuel Jime, its candidate, challenging Ortoms’s victory for lacking merit.

The court also awarded N150,000 fine against the APC candidate.

Ortom defected from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to contest the election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared him winner of the March 9 election.

The governor got 434,473 votes to defeat Jime, who secured 345,155 votes.

But Jime challenged the victory on the grounds that the exercise did not comply with the provisions of the electoral act.

The APC candidate also alleged in his petition that Ortom was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast.

But the election petition tribunal sitting in Makurdi affirmed the governor’s reelection.

Jime then headed to the appeal court to challenge the decision of the tribunal.