From Ahmed Muhammed Danasabe, Lokoja
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the victory of Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November 11, 2023 governorship election held in Kogi.
A five-member panel of the apex court, in a judgment, held that the appeal by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its candidate, Muritala Ajaka, lacked merit and dismissed it.
Justice Sadiq Umar, reading the lead judgment resolved all the three issues identified for determination in the appeal against the appellants.
The Appeal Court, in a judgement delivered by Justice Onyekachi Otisi on July 11 and the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had previously affirmed Ododo as winner of the election.
Justice Otisi, while delivering judgment on SDP and Ajaka” ‘s appeal, agreed with the election petition tribunal, which sat in Abuja.
The judge said the tribunal was right to have expunged the evidence of the 1st prosecution witness (PW-1) called by the petitioners on the ground that the evidence tendered by the witness was a documentary hearsay.
The Triumph reports that the tribunal had, on May 27, affirmed the victory of Gov. Ododo of APC in the Nov. 11, 2023 Kogi governorship poll.
The three-member panel of justices, headed by Justice Ado Birnin-Kudu, held that the petition was bereft of substance and accordingly dismissed it.
The tribunal held that SDP and Ajaka failed to prove the allegations of over-voting and non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022 in the petition.
The panel, in a unanimous decision, held that all the witness evidence filed before it was incompetent and full of inconsistencies.
It also agreed with the submissions of the respondents that the allegations of forgery raised in the petition were pre-election matters, which ought to have been raised 14 days after the documents were submitted to INEC.
Kogi had, on Nov. 11, 2023, held its off-cycle election in which Ododo of the APC emerged as the winner, beating his closest rival, Ajaka of the SDP, by a wide margin.
Ajaka, not satisfied with INEC’s declaration, dragged the electoral umpire, Ododo and APC to the tribunal as 1st to 3rd respondents, respectively.
