TRIBUNAL AXES SENATE PRESIDENT, DAVID MARK, ORDERS FRESH ELECTIONS

David Mark

Senate President, David Mark of the People's Democratic Party, PDP became the latest casualty in the series of election nullification as the Benue State electoral tribunal ruled against the former Army General  in the election petition involving him and Alhaji Usman Abubakar aka Young Alhaji of the All Nigeria People's Party, ANPP.

The Tribunal adopted results from seven Local Governments in the Senatorial Districts where Abubakar of the ANPP scored 179,000 votes as against Mark's 89,000 votes ordering a fresh election in the remaining two Local Governments within 60 days.
The ruling is coming barely 48 housr after the ANPP Senatorial candidate was arrested by the Benue State police command for an alleged forgery and falsification of documents belonging to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Mr. Samuel Junadu, the police public relations officer, in a statement, accused Young Alhaji of refusing to honor several invitations by the command. He alleged that Young Alhaji was arrested in connection with a case of forgery, conspiracy and falsification of INEC documents in conjunction with some of the commission's officials in 2007.

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The state police commissioner, Ibiyinka Kayode, who just returned from a trip, said the arrest of the ANPP candidate had become necessary following complaints by INEC that vital documents in the case (though in custody of the tribunal) had been tampered with.

Although there were speculations that the Senate president was behind the arrest of his political rival, CP Kayode denied knowledge of any form of inducement.

Abubakar had dragged Mark to the election petition tribunal sitting in Benue, praying the tribunal to nullify his (Mark's) declaration as winner of the April 21, 2007, senatorial election in Benue South-East senatorial district.

The ANPP candidate had also prayed the tribunal to declare him the winner of the election, because he won the majority votes cast in the election.

When the tribunal was about to rule on the case, a twist was introduced into it, as D.D. Dodo, counsel to Mark, filed a fresh application asking for a retrial.

According to Dodo (SAN), the application for a retrial had become necessary because some of the documents in the tribunal had been tampered with.