By TAIYE AGBAJE and EBERE AGOZIE

The Supreme Court on Friday, affirmed the victory of Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Nov. 11, 2023 governorship election held in Kogi.

A five-member panel of the apex court, in a judgment, held that the appeal by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its candidate, Muritala Ajaka, marked: SC/CV/654/2024 was without merit and proceeded to dismiss it.

Justice Sadiq Umar, who authored and read the lead judgment, resolved 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 Appeal Court, in a unanimous judgement delivered by Justice Onyekachi Otisi on July 11, had upheld the decision of the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.

The appellate court held that the SDP and its governorship candidate, 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, Dr Abdullahi Bayawo, challenging Ododo’s victory.

Justice Otisi, while delivering judgment on SDP and Ajaka”s appeal, agreed with the election petition tribunal which sat in Abuja.

The judge said the tribunal was right to have expunged the evidence of the 1st prosecution witness (PW-1) called by the petitioners on the ground 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 document 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 said action, Justice Otisi held, happened before the conduct of the Nov. 11, 2023 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 document ought to be proven beyond reasonable doubt.

Justice Otisi subsequently resolved all the issues raised in the appeal against the appellants.

NAN reports that the tribunal had, on May 27, affirmed the victory of Gov. Ododo of APC in the Nov. 11, 2023 Kogi governorship poll.

The three-member panel of justices, headed by Justice Ado Birnin-Kudu, held that the petition was bereft of substance and accordingly dismissed it.

The tribunal held that SDP and Ajaka failed to prove the allegations of over-voting and non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022 in the petition.

The panel, in a 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 INEC.

Kogi had, on Nov. 11, 2023, held its off-cycle election in which Ododo of the APC emerged winner, beating his closest rival, Ajaka of the SDP with a wide margin.

Unsatisfied with INEC’s declaration of Ododo as winner of the poll, Ajaka and his party dragged the electoral umpire, Ododo and APC to the tribunal as 1st to 3rd respondents respectively. (NAN)

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