By Amos Aar
THE 2023 gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State, Titus Uba, has dismissed a social media post that he has been dragged to the Federal High Court Abuja by the State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) over certificate issue.
Mr Uba, the incumbent Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, who replied National Record on the issue through his Chief Press Secretary, Wuese Orshi, on Monday evening said, “we have no such case at the moment”.
However, APC State Publicity Secretary, Dan Morgan-Ihomun, had published a story to that effect with court documents on his Facebook wall on Monday, 8th August, 2022.
The post reads: “the Benue APC has dragged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, People’s Democratic Party, PDP and Rt. Hon. Titus Uba to Court, for the inability of INEC to publish the education qualification of the governorship candidate of PDP in Benue State, Rt Hon. Titus Uba”.
According to the documents, the Benue APC and its gubernatorial candidate, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia, in a suit no. FHC/ABJ/CS/130/2022 are seeking the determination of the following questions:
“Whether upon the interpretation and application of Section 177 (d) of the 1999 Constitution, the 2nd Defendant who failed to indicate any institution attended and attach any certificate to his Form EC9 submitted to the 1st Defendant, can be said to have been educated up to at least the School Certificate level or its equivalent to be qualified to contest for the office of Governor of Benue State in the general election slated for March, 2023.
“Whether by virtue of Section 177 (d) of the 1999 Constitution bond the Form EC9 submitted by the 3rd Defendant to the 1st Defendant, the 1st Defendant was not manifestly wrong in law when it accepted and published the name of the 3rd Defendant as the candidate of the 2nd Defendant for the Gubernatorial Election to the office of the Governor of Benue State in the forthcoming election, despite the glaring fact that the 3rd Defendant is not qualified to contest for office of the Governor of Benue State, having not been educated up to at least the School Certificate level or its equivalent as required by Section 177 (c) of the 1999 Constitution”.
According to the said court papers, the APC is therefore praying the Court for “a declaration that by virtue of section 177(d) of the Constitution and the form EC9 submitted by the 3rd defendant to the 1st defendant, the 3rd defendant cannot be said to be educated up to at least the school certificate level or it’s equivalent to be qualified to contest for the office of governor in Benue State in the general election in 2023” if any of the above questions are answered in the affirmative.
The APC is also seeking for “a declaration that the 1st defendant was manifestly wrong when it accepted and posted the of the 3rd defendant as the candidate of the 2nd defendant for the gubernatorial election to the office of Governor of Benue State in the forthcoming election, despite the fact that the 3rd defendant is not qualified to contest for the office of Governor of Benue State having not been educated up to at least school certificate level or its equivalent as required by section 177 (d) of the 1999 Constitution”.
The plaintiffs reportedly submitted the application through their counsel, F. B. Mnyim Esq. of F. B. M & Co. A date is yet to fixed for hearing.
Pages 1 and 2 of the alleged litigation
