Some indigenes of Benue state on Monday staged a protest in front of the headquarters of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Abuja.
They protested the relocation of the state’s local government election petition tribunal to the nation’s capital.
Speaking to reporters, Audu Gbaja, national coordinator of the Coalition of Civil Society for Transparency in Governance, said Abuja is outside the tribunal’s jurisdiction.
“The electoral act states that for one to be qualified to petition an election at the tribunal, the person must have participated in the election,” Gbaja said.
“In the case of Benue state local government petition tribunal, the petitioners did not participate in any process of the election, as the national leadership of the APC in February 2024 had dissolved its Benue state executive and replaced same with a unity caretaker committee.
“It is wrong to entertain petitions from those who did not participate in any form of the election, and later relocated the same tribunal from the three senatorial zones of the state to Makurdi without any visible reason, and further relocated the tribunal to Abuja which is clearly off jurisdiction.
“The Nigerian Bar Association as a pressure group should not be used to perpetuate illegality, disregard for court order and clearly violate the Nigerian constitution and the electoral act 2022 as amended.”
Gbaja said if the tribunal sits anywhere other than Benue state, “it therefore means that the leadership of the NBA has compromised”.
“We shall continue to occupy the NBA House and the National Judicial Council until the right thing is done,” he added.
On Friday, a federal high court sitting in Makurdi restrained the Benue LG election petition tribunal from sitting at the NBA House Abuja or any other venue outside the state.
