{"id":159203,"date":"2025-04-13T21:48:03","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T20:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/benue-tribunal-sacks-agatu-lg-chairman-melvin-ejeh"},"modified":"2025-04-15T13:15:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T12:15:39","slug":"benue-tribunal-sacks-agatu-lg-chairman-melvin-ejeh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-tribunal-sacks-agatu-lg-chairman-melvin-ejeh","title":{"rendered":"Benue: Tribunal sacks Agatu LG Chairman Melvin Ejeh"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The Benue State Local Government Elections Petition Tribunal, sitting at the NBA House in Abuja, on Sunday nullified the election of Melvin Ejeh as the Executive Chairman of Agatu Local Government Area.<\/p>\n<p>The tribunal instead declared Napoleon Otache as the duly elected chairman of the council.<\/p>\n<p>The tribunal\u2019s ruling followed a petition challenging the legitimacy of the local government election in Agatu, one of the 23 LGAs in Benue State.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement issued shortly after the verdict, Ejeh described the tribunal\u2019s decision as a \u201ctotal miscarriage of justice\u201d and reaffirmed his commitment to contesting the ruling through the legal process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy fellow citizens of Agatu Local Government, you are aware of the total miscarriage of justice done to me on a matter of the same facts and evidence across the 23 local government areas of Benue State at the tribunal,\u201d Ejeh stated.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the ruling, he maintained that he remains the legitimate chairman until the outcome of the appeal, urging residents to remain calm and united during this period.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to emphasize the importance of staying calm and united. I have already mobilized my dedicated team of lawyers, who have proceeded on appeal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to assure you that the mandate you bestowed upon me will not be taken. My legal team is confident in the strength of our case, and we will prevail when we present it at the appeal tribunal,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. The Benue State Local Government Elections Petition Tribunal, sitting at the NBA House in Abuja, on Sunday nullified the election of Melvin Ejeh as the Executive Chairman of Agatu Local Government Area. The tribunal instead declared Napoleon Otache as the duly elected chairman of the council. The tribunal\u2019s ruling followed a petition [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":159202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[12613,331,16854,254],"class_list":["post-159203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-agatu","tag-benue","tag-melvin-ejeh","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Benue: Tribunal sacks Agatu LG Chairman Melvin Ejeh - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Benue State Local Government Elections Petition Tribunal, sitting at the NBA House in Abuja, on Sunday nullified the ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-tribunal-sacks-agatu-lg-chairman-melvin-ejeh\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Benue: Tribunal sacks Agatu LG Chairman Melvin Ejeh\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Benue State Local Government Elections Petition Tribunal, sitting at the NBA House in Abuja, on Sunday nullified the ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-tribunal-sacks-agatu-lg-chairman-melvin-ejeh\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-13T20:48:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-15T12:15:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/04\/sm_1744569070.300732.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-tribunal-sacks-agatu-lg-chairman-melvin-ejeh#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-tribunal-sacks-agatu-lg-chairman-melvin-ejeh\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Benue: Tribunal sacks Agatu LG Chairman Melvin Ejeh\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-13T20:48:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-15T12:15:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-tribunal-sacks-agatu-lg-chairman-melvin-ejeh\"},\"wordCount\":256,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-tribunal-sacks-agatu-lg-chairman-melvin-ejeh#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/04\/sm_1744569070.300732.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Agatu\",\"Benue\",\"Melvin Ejeh\",\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-tribunal-sacks-agatu-lg-chairman-melvin-ejeh#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-tribunal-sacks-agatu-lg-chairman-melvin-ejeh\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/benue-tribunal-sacks-agatu-lg-chairman-melvin-ejeh\",\"name\":\"Benue: Tribunal sacks Agatu LG Chairman Melvin Ejeh - 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