The Supreme Court has confirmed the election of Alhaji Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as Governor in the November 11, 2023 election in Kogi State.
A five-member panel of the apex court, who delivered the final judgment in the suit today, August 23, in Abuja, held that the appeal by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its candidate, Alhaji Muritala Ajaka, marked: SC/CV/654/2024, was without merit.
Justice Sadiq Umar, who authored and read the lead judgment, resolved the three issues identified for determination in the appeal against the appellants.
A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal in a unanimous judgement delivered by Justice Onyekachi Otisi on July 11, 2024, had upheld the decision of the Kogi State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.
The appellate court held that the SDP and its governorship candidate failed to prove the allegations contained in their appeal beyond reasonable doubt as required by law.
The court dismissed the appeals filed by Action Alliance and its governorship candidate, Olayinka Braimoh, and that of the Peoples Redemption Party 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 Prosecution Witness 1 called by the petitioners on the ground that the evidence tendered by the witness was a documentary hearsay.
She said that 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 is a pre-election matter, which is handled by the Federal High Court and not the tribunal.
Justice Otisi held that the action happened before the conduct of the November 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.
The tribunal had on May 27, 2024 affirmed the victory of Governor Ododo.
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 matters, which ought to have been raised 14 days after the documents were submitted to INEC.
