By Uche Onyeali
Court of Appeal in Abuja on Thursday affirmed the election of Ahmed Ododo of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the governor of Kogi State.
The appellate court in its judgement dismissed the appeal filed by the governorship candidate of Social Democratic Party, SDP, Muritala Ajaka, and his party for lacking in merit.
Resolving all four grounds of appeal against the SDP and its candidate in the election, a three-man panel of the appellate court held that the petitioners failed to prove all the allegations in their petition beyond reasonable doubt.
The court also ruled that the issue of alleged certificate forgery against Ododo was a pre-election matter and ought to have commenced at the Federal High Court.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared APC’s Ododo as the winner of the keenly contested November 11, 2023, Kogi State governorship election.
According to the electoral umpire, Ododo polled 446,237 votes to beat SDP’s Ajaka, who scored 259,052, while Dino Melaye of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, came third in the election with 46,362 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, Ajaka and his party approached the tribunal seeking an overturn of the election results and an order directing INEC to conduct a fresh poll in about five local government areas on the grounds of alleged forgery, over-voting and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
But the tribunal in its judgement dismissed the petition and affirmed Ododo’s election, ruling that the petitioner could not prove that the governor presented a forged certificateamong other claims.
