The Court of Appeal in Abuja has upheld the election of Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the Governor of Kogi State
In a judgment on Thursday, a panel of the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal filed by the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Muritala Ajaka and his party on the grounds that it is unmeritorious.
The Court of Appeal , which resolved all the four issues, identified for determination, against the appellants, held that the appellant failed to proved allegations of over voting, certificate forgery, among others.
In the unanimous judgement delivered by Justice Onyekachi Otisi the court held that the election tribunal, which sat in Abuja was right to have expunged the evidence of the first witness called by the petitioners (PW1) on the grounds that the evidence given by the witness was hearsay.
It added that witnesses in election cases, whether subpoenaed or ordinary witnesses, are supposed to front load their witness statement on oath.
The court added that, “the order of the tribunal expunging the evidence of the PW1 cannot be faulted. The law grants the lower court the power to expunge inadmissible evidence brought before it.”
It held that the appellants’ claim that the document that Ododo submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were forged, is a pre-election issue which is handled by the Federal High Court and not election tribunal.
The court noted that the incident occured before the conduct of the governorship election on November 11, 2023and as such, cannot be legislated upon by the lower election tribunal.
It held that allegation of forgery of document ought to be proven beyond reasonable doubt, “This, the appellants failed to do as required by law. Affidavit of lost attached to form EC8 by the second defendant is by no means a certificate.
Justice Otisi said: “I see no reason to disturb the decision of the lower Tribunal on the petition as the appellants have failed to prove their allegations contained in their petition”, the court held and resolved all the issues raised in the appeal against the appellants.
“This appeal failed and it is hereby dismissed for lacking in merit. There is no order as to cost, parties are to bear their respective cost”, Justice Onyekachi Otisi held.
The Court of Appeal also dismissed the appeals by Action Alliance (AA) and its governorship candidate, Olayinka Braimoh and that of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and its governorship candidate, Dr. Abdullahi Yunusa Bayawo, for being without merit.
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