Appeal Court Sacks Former Senate President David Mark From Senate

Appeal Court Sacks Former Senate President David Mark From Senate

The Benue state division of the Nigerian Court of Appeal sitting in Makurdi on Saturday nullified the election of former Senate President David Mark in a ruling delivered by Justice Olabisi Ige.

The appellate court upheld the six grounds of appeal brought against the judgment of the lower tribunal which had last month affirmed the election of Mark.

In ruling on the appeal brought by Daniel Onjeh, the South Benue Senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Justice Ige ruled that the election of Mr. Mark was fraught with so many irregularities that it failed all tests of “freeness and fairness”.

In particular, the court noted that Mr. Mark’s election results had been pre-written on March 28 before proper collation and announcement was made on March 30. The appeal panel ruled that a fresh election be conducted in 90 days in the senatorial zone.

Onjeh had on 20 October taken his case to the Appeal court after the election tribunal dismissed his case against Mark, a former president of the Nigerian senate.

Onjeh’ s case was that the victory of Mark for the Benue South Senatorial seat was marred by violence and rigging .

He alleged that INEC officials were compromised and voters financially induced by the PDP agents at the various polling units in the district .

The petitioner also alleged that accreditation of voters was not properly done and claimed that card readers were not used while accreditation did not hold in some polling units.

But the tribunal, led by Mosunmola Dipeolu , a Lagos judge , dismissed the case in its entirety for want of proofs .

In the judgment delivered on Oct 7, 2015 Dipeolu dismissed the petition on the ground that the petitioner failed to discharge the burden of proof placed on him by law .

But in his appeal , Onjeh contended that the tribunal failed to consider and make necessary findings of fact on all the vital issues raised in the petition .

He also averred that the tribunal erred by departing from its earlier decision in a similar case where it declared that collation of votes after declaration and return on certain votes was irregular.

He also said that the tribunal erred by failing to consider his final written address and determine the relevant arguments proffered in it.

The petitioner insisted that the tribunal had miscarried justice in spite of the evidence placed before it .

He, therefore , urged the appellate court to invoke the provision of Section 15 of the Court of Appeal Act and review the evidence in his petition so as to overturn the decision of the lower court .

He is also Nigeria’ s longest -serving senator. He was elected in 1999 , and re -elected in 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015 . He served as president of the senate for eight years.