Mark, Onjeh go back to trenches

Mark, Onjeh go back to trenches

By Our Reporter  on November 30, 2015   Politics
From Rose Ejembi, Makurdi.
ONLY last Saturday, the Ap­peal Court sitting in Makur­di, the Benue State capital nullified the election on Senator David Bonaventure Alechenu Mark and ordered for fresh election to be con­ducted in the senatorial dis­trict within 90 days from the day of judgement.
In 1999, former Sen­ate President, Ameh Ebute locked horns with David Mark for the senatorial dis­trict but in the end, Mark was declared winner in that election. In 2003 and 2007 respectively, Alhaji Usman Abubakar popularly known as Young Alhaji contested the election with Mark and then headed for the courts after he lost.
Also, in 2011, Gen. Law­rence Onoja entered the race with David Mark on the plat­form of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and lost both at the polls and at the tribunal.
Onoja however started pur­suing the case at the courts when suddenly, he withdrew, defected to the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the rest is now history.
In 2015, Mike Onoja con­tested with Mark on the plat­form of the PDP while On­jeh also contested with him on the platform of the APC. Onoja bowed to pressure on the day of the primaries and stepped down for Mark while Onjeh forged ahead and went into election with him.
Last Saturday’s judge­ment, which is the first against Mark who had been representing the Idoma peo­ple at the upper chamber of the National Assembly for 17 straight years since 1999 started like a child’s play after his opponent from the All Progressives Congress ( APC), Daniel Onjeh dragged him to the Election Petition Tribunal.
At the end, the National and State Assembly Elec­tions Petition Tribunal pre­sided over by Justice Mo­sunmola Dipeolu upheld Mark’s election
and dismissed Onjeh’s pe­tition.
The Tribunal had held that the petitioner (Onjeh) failed on the burden of proof to substantially prove that the senatorial election in Benue South district did not comply with the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.
Onjeh had argued that the re-election of Mark was marred by irregularities such as ballot stuffing, manipula­tion of votes, inducement, falsification of results, abuse of office, over-voting as well as mutilation of result sheets and had prayed the court to nullify the said election and order for a fresh one.
Justice Dipeolu disagreed with the petitioner, arguing that the evidence of his wit­nesses were contradictory as they were based on hearsay which is not admissible in law.
“Witnesses contradicted their statement in admitting that the election held free and fair in their polling units. Their evidence is based on hearsay”, he said.
However, not pleased with the decision of the tribunal, Onjeh had headed for the Appellate Court to further review the judgment of the tribunal which earlier dis­missed his petition.
Then after weeks of wait­ing and apprehension, the Appeal court nullified the election of Senator David Mark and ordered the In­dependent National Elec­toral Commission (INEC) to within 90 days conduct a fresh election in the nine local government areas that make up the Benue South senatorial district.
Delivering judgement in the case, Justice Peter Ige declared that the election of former senate president failed to comply with the electoral act, adding that the lower tribunal erred in not making any findings in the evidence of PW 17 on the is­sue of collating results a day after Mark had been declared winner of the March 28 elec­tion.
“Having failed to comply with the electoral act, I set aside the judgement of the lower tribunal and order that INEC shall within 90 days hold election in the zone”, he said.
Justice Ige who cited vari­ous legal authorities to back up his judgement submitted that the appellant proved his case beyond reasonable doubt that as at the time the respondent was declared winner of the senatorial elec­tion on March 28, results from seven local govern­ments were still being await­ed.
He posited further that none of the ten witnesses called by the respondent could controvert the argu­ments of the appellant that the result of the election was not announced before the collation of all the results es­pecially from the said seven local governments.
“The appellant has shown by oral evidence that colla­tion of results were still on­going in seven local govern­ments as at 29/03/15 when the first respondent was de­clared winner of the election. None of the 10 witnesses could controvert that all col­lated results were done a day after the returning officer declared the first respondent winner of the election”, he said.
The Judge who maintained that the appellant formulated six issues for consideration in his appeal said that issues 1, 2 and 3 were in favor of the appellant while issue 4 and 5 were in favour of the respondent while issue six was struck out.
Justice Ige therefore de­clared that since the results of seven out of nine local governments in the senato­rial district were still being collated as at the time the former senate president was declared winner of the elec­tion, “this court hereby set aside the judgement of the lower tribunal and invalidate the election of Mark.”
As soon as the judgement was passed, shouts of jubila­tion among supporters and loyalists of Onjeh and the APC rented the air at the court premises and some of them were seen making calls to break the news to family and friends who were not in court while Mark’s support­ers were visibly absent.
Also, our correspondent gathered that there was un­easy calm in Otukpo and other parts of the Senatorial district as soon as the news of the Appeal Court judge­ment filtered into the zone.
While many political watchers in Benue especial­ly as it concerns the Benue South Senatorial District view the Appellate court’s judgment as a bad blow to the zone, others are of the opinion that the appeal court did justice to the matter.
But majority of Idoma sons and daughters view the judgement with mixed feelings with many express­ing optimism that the rerun election could go in favour of Mark especially on the argument that the Idomas are already angry with the APC-led government over what they term undue mar­ginalization.
However, for some, espe­cially the ruling party and the youths, the appeal court judgement has further re­stored their confidence in the judiciary as the last hope of the common man.
As soon as the judgement was delivered, some youths from the Idoma extraction who had thronged the Ap­peal Court on the judgement day had began to jubilate while also singing songs of praise to God.
On his part, Onjeh who ex­pressed happiness with the outcome of the case said he had confidence of winning in the rerun election and urged Mark to bow to the people’s choice.
But Mark’s counsel, Ikonne said some rulings of the appeal court were very strange to him, adding that he would go and study the judgement and come up with the next line of action.
In a swift reaction to the judgement, the former sen­ate President who urged his supporters to remain calm posited that he would defeat Onjeh again and again if he had to go back to the polls a 100 times.
In a statement which was signed by his Media Assis­tant, Paul Mumeh, Mark en­joined his supporters not to be deterred by the judgement but be strengthened ahead of the rerun, stressing that he won the election convinc­ingly and have no doubts that his people would vote him again.
“Whatever the situation may be, one thing I know is that my people are solidly behind me and also appre­ciate that I have done more than enough to lift up Idoma nation to a position of emi­nence in the contemporary political history of Nigeria.
“I won the election clean and clear. If we go back to the polls 100 times, I will still win convincingly”.
But whether Mark would win the run election or not, time and the days ahead will tell.