Appeal Court upholds Ododo’s election as Kogi governor

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has upheld the election of Usman Ododo as the governor of Kogi State.

The judgement, delivered on Thursday by a three-judge panel, dismissed the appeal of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its candidate in the disputed 11 November 2023 election, Murtala Ajaka.

Affirming Mr Ododo’s election in a unanimous judgement, the Court of Appeal upheld the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal’s earlier decision dismissing Mr Ajaka’s petition.

The appeal court ruled that Mr Ajaka and his party, the appellants, failed to prove their allegations against Mr Ododo’s election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Mr Ododo, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, the winner of the Kogi governorship election.

The commission said Mr Ododo secured 446,237 votes to defeat Mr Ajaka, who received 259,052 votes, and Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 46,362 votes.

After the election, Mr Ajaka and the SDP challenged the results, alleging the election was marred by over-voting and significant non-compliance with the Electoral Act.

They also accused Mr Ododo of certificate forgery, thereby invalidating his candidacy.

The petitioners asked the tribunal to invalidate the votes credited to the APC and Ododo.

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They prayed that Mr Ajaka be declared the winner of the election or that the tribunal should order a supplementary election excluding the APC and Ododo,

At the end of the hearing, the tribunal dismissed the petition, holding, among others, that the forgery allegations and disqualification were pre-election matters that should not be raised in court after the conduct of the election.

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The tribunal found that the petitioners did not provide substantial evidence of over-voting and abandoned most of their claims that were not backed with evidence.

Moreover, the tribunal noted the petitioners failed to call credible witnesses, as none of their 25 witnesses were polling officers or unit agents, who are qualified to testify about what transpired at the polling units where irregularities were alleged to have occurred.

Dissatisfied with the tribunal’s decision, the SDP and Mr Ajaka went on appeal.

However, the Court of Appeal affirmed the lower court’s decision on Thursday.

More details later…