FORMER senate president David Mark has had his election as the senator representing the Benue South Senatorial District nullified by the Court of Appeal this morning after judges ruled that he was declared the winner illegally.
Senator Mark, 67, has represented Benue South since Nigeria's return to democracy in 1999 and between 2007 and 2015, he was the senate president. A leading member of the People's Democratic Party, (PDP), Senator Mark has been touted as a possible future presidential candidate.
In this year's parliamentary elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) declared Senator Mark the winner of the March 28 polls, making him Nigeria's longest serving senator. However, his main opponent, Donald Onjeh of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had challenged the decision, claiming that Senator Mark was declared winner while collating was still ongoing.
Last month, the election tribunal upheld Senator Mark's victory but Mr Onjeh and the APC decided to take the matter to the Court of Appeal. This morning, the court, sitting in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, agreed with Mr Onjeh, nullifying the election of Senator Mark and ordered a re-run of the polls.
In its ruling, the Makurdi division of the Court of Appeal ordered a re-run of the poll within 90 days. Judges agreed with Mr Onjeh that while the collation of results for the Benue South senatorial district were still ongoing in seven of the nine local government areas, Inec declared Senator Mark the winner of the poll.
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