The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the election of Governor Usman Ododo of Kogi State.
Mr Ododo was the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the 11 November 2023 governorship election in the state.
A five-member panel of the court unanimously held that the appeal by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its candidate, Muritala Ajaka, to challenge Mr Ododo’s victory lacked merit.
Sadiq Umar, who read the lead judgement, dismissed the appeal after resolving all the three issues identified for determination in the appeal against the appellants.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal had affirmed Mr Ododo’s election in a unanimous judgement delivered on 11 July.
Onyekachi Otisi, who delivered the lead judgement, upheld the decision of the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which had equally affirmed the governor’s election.
The appellate court held that the SDP and its governorship candidate, Mr Ajaka, failed to prove the allegations contained in their appeal beyond reasonable doubt as required by law.
The court equally dismissed the appeals filed by Action Alliance (AA) and its governorship candidate, Olayinka Braimoh; and that of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and its governorship candidate, Abdullahi Bayawo, challenging Mr Ododo’s victory.
In its judgement on SDP and Mr Ajaka’s appeal, the Court of Appeal agreed that the tribunal was right to have expunged the evidence of the 1st petitioners’ witness (PW-1) on the grounds that the evidence tendered by the witness was a documentary hearsay.
She said witnesses, whether subpoenaed or normal, are supposed to front-load their witness statements on oath as required by law.
The judge held that the petitioners’ witnesses were incompetent because their statements did not accompany the petition in line with the electoral laws.
She agreed with the tribunal that there were inconsistencies in the case of the appellants.
According to her, the allegation of forgery of documents that Ododo submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is a pre-election matter which is handled by the Federal High Court and not the tribunal.
The court held that the issue happened before the conduct of the2023 governorship election in the state and as such, cannot be legislated upon by the lower tribunal.
The judge also held that the allegation of forgery of documents ought to be proven beyond reasonable doubt.
The court resolved all the issues raised in the appeal against the appellants.
NAN reports that on 27 May, the tribunal affirmed the victory of Gov. Ododo of APC in the 11 November 2023 Kogi State governorship poll.
