Court of Appeal in Abuja has affirmed the election of Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the governor of Kogi State.
The appellate court in a judegment on Thursday dismissed the appeal filed by the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Muritala Ajaka, and his party for lacking in merit.
Resolving all four grounds of appeal against the SDP and its candidate, a three-man panel of the appellate court held that the petitioners failed to prove all the allegations in their petition beyond reasonable doubt.
The court in its lead judgement delivered by Justice Onyekachi Otisi, said it found no reason to invalidate the verdict of the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which had earlier validated Ododo’s victory at the election.
The Justice Ado Birnin-Kudu-led tribunal had on May 27 held that Ajaka failed to prove his allegation that governor Ododo did not secure the highest number of valid votes cast at the election.
It equally dismissed Ajaka’s allegation that the election was not only fraught with irregularities, but also conducted with substantial non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.
The tribunal also ruled that the issue of alleged certificate forgery against Ododo was a pre-election matter that ought to have commenced at the Federal High Court.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared APC’s Ododo as the winner of the keenly contested November 11, 2023, Kogi State governorship election.
According to the electoral umpire, Ododo polled 446,237 votes to beat SDP’s Ajaka, who scored 259,052, while Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, came third in the election with 46,362 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, Ajaka and his party approached the tribunal seeking an overturn of the election results and an order directing INEC to conduct a fresh poll in about five local government areas on the grounds of alleged forgery, over-voting and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
But the tribunal in its judgement dismissed the petition and affirmed Ododo’s election, ruling that the petitioner could not prove that the governor presented a forged certificate among other claims.
