The National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal has dismissed the petition filed by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Mimi Orubibi, against the election of a former governor of Benue State, Senator Gabriel Suswam.
Orubibi had petitioned the National Assembly Tribunal alleging that the February election in the Benue North-East Senatorial District was marred by corrupt practices and criminality such as over voting, falsification of results, infractions, use of thugs as well as snatching of ballot boxes.

She also alleged in her petition that vote inflation occurred during the transmission of results by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The tribunal in its judgment stressed the second ground of the petition on whether the first respondent (Suswam) had dutifully scored the majority of lawful votes.
Reading the judgment, the Chairman of the three-man panel, Justice R. Odugu, held, “They (petitioners) carry the heavy burden. Allegation of criminality was not proved beyond reasonable doubt by the petitioners.
“The claims of unlawful votes of 80,000 in over 400 units by the petitioners were not true.  The figure was conjured by the petitioners and not even pleaded.
“The petitioners did not relate document as pleaded in the petition. They did not show that over-voting, if removed, would alter the result of the election in their favour.  They did not prove the issue of falsification of results before the tribunal to enable it resolve the issue in their favour.”
The tribunal therefore upheld the election of Senator Suswan and also awarded N300,000 to the respondents.