A three man panel of the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja is set to deliver judgement in the appeal filed by Mister Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party challenging the judgement of the Kogi State Governorship Election petition Tribunal which affirmed the election of Mister Ahmed ODODO as the duly elected Governor of Kogi State.
The Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja had in May 2024, affirmed the victory of Governor Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November 11, 2023 Kogi governorship election.
The three-man panel of justices, headed by Justice Ado Birnin-Kudu, held that the petition of Mister Ajaka was bereft of substance and accordingly dismissed it.
The tribunal further held that the petitioners – the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and its candidate, Murtala Ajaka – failed to prove the allegations of over-voting and non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 in the petition.
The panel, in its unanimous decision, held that all the witness evidence filed before it were 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 matter, which ought to have been raised 14 days after the documents were submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
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