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Tribunal Nullifies President of the Senate David Mark's Election

23rd Feb. 2008

The Election petition tribunal sitting in Makurdi has nullified the election of Senate President David Mark. Delivering a three-hour judgment, Justice C.I. Oriri declared that the results for Agagu and Okpokwu local government areas of Benue State, which were earlier cancelled by the returning officer, had disenfranchised 139, 466 voters from electing their representative.

The tribunal said the results from seven other local government areas were not enough to produce a representative. It, therefore, ordered INEC to conduct fresh and credible elections in Agagu and Okpokwu local government areas within 60 days of the judgment.

The tribunal, also upheld the results of the seven other local governments with Usman Abubakar of the ANPP scoring 172,636 against the 98,029 votes scored by David Mark of the PDP. The results from the two local government areas where elections would be conducted should be added to the results of the seven to determine the winner, the tribunal ordered.
The tribunal also held that the Returning Officer had a constitutional right to cancel the elections in the two affected local government areas as he did, but could not recall the said cancelled votes in Makurdi.

The petitioner, Abubakar, was present at the tribunal to hear the verdict. The tribunal had earlier nullified the elections of two other senators of Benue State, former Governor George Akume and Joseph Akhagerger.

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