Court of Appeal Reserves Judgment in Ortom-Tarzoor, Almakura-Maku Cases

The Court of Appeal Makurdi section has reserved judgments in the cases involving Governor Samuel Ortom of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Prince Terhemen Tarzoor of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as well as Tanko Al-makura of the APC and Labaran Maku of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in the disputed Benue and Nasarawa Governorship elections.



Counsel to Ortom, INEC and APC had argued that the appellate court should dismiss the appeal for lack of merit. However counsel to Tarzoor, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) asked the court to sustain the appeal and give judgment in favour of the petitioner Tarzoor.
He argued that the APC did not conduct primary in selecting its candidate which was a flaw on the electoral act.

In the case of Nasarawa state, Maku’s counsel Prof. Awa Kalu said they have sufficiently argued their case to prove that they are not satisfied with the judgment of the lower tribunal to strike out their petition. Counsel to Governor Al-Makura, Yusuf Ali SAN, urged the court to dismiss the appeal on ground that it is fraught with irregularities.

He noted that the appellant is inconsistent with his claims that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) lacks the power to create voting points in the state, accusing them of failure to properly tender documents on the tribunal.

The counsel also averred that testimonies of witnesses were based on hearsay, saying “they cannot have a super human witness who claimed to be omniscient”

While counsel to the APC who aligned himself with briefs of Al-Makura’s counsel, urged