The Court of Appeal in Abuja made a significant ruling on Thursday, upholding Ahmed Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the rightful governor of Kogi state.
News About Nigeria reports that a three-member panel of justices unanimously agreed that the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its governorship candidate, Murtala Yakubu Ajaka, failed to provide sufficient evidence to support their claims.
The court held that the petitioners did not meet the legal requirement of proving their allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.
Therefore, the Court of Appeal affirmed Ahmed Usman Ododo’s election as the validly elected governor of Kogi state, dismissing the SDP’s challenge to his victory.
The appellate court said the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which sat in Abuja was right to have expunged the evidence of the first witness called by the petitioners for been hearsay documents.
According to the court, the allegation of forgery of documents which Ododo submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is a pre-election matter which should be handled by the Federal High Court and not the Tribunal.
Having resolved all the issues raised in the appeal against the appellants, the court dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit and upheld the judgement of the Tribunal.
It would be recalled that the tribunal had, on May 27, affirmed the victory of Ododo in the November 11, 2023 Kogi State governorship poll.
The three-member panel of justices, held that the petition was bereft of substance and accordingly dismissed it.
Ajaka and his party approached the Court of Appeal seeking an order setting aside the judgement of the Tribunal, an order restoring the testimony of their first witness (PW1) as well as all the documents they tendered that were expunged from the records of the Tribunal.
The appellants also asked the Appeal Court to hold that Ododo was not even qualified to have contested the election into the office of Governor of Kogi State and that all votes ascribed and or allocated to him and the APC are wasted votes.
