On Thursday, the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal reserved judgment in the appeal filed by the Social Democratic Party’s candidate, Muritala Ajaka, and his party in the November 11 Kogi governorship election challenging the judgment of the state’s election petitions tribunal.

On May 27, the tribunal affirmed Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress as the duly elected governor of Kogi.

A three-member justice of the appellate court reserved judgment in the appeal to a date that would be communicated to parties after the adoption of all their briefs filed in the matter.

Earlier in his submission, Kanu Agabi, while adopting the briefs filed on behalf of the Independent National Electoral Commission, prayed the court to dismiss the appeal filed by Ajaka and his party for lack of merit.

He said there were inconsistencies in the case of the appellants.

He argued that the appellate court had decided that if the grounds of a petition were inconsistent with one another and were not consistent with the reliefs, it should be struck out.

He also argued that the petitioners’ evidence was grossly insufficient, citing a Supreme Court decision. 

The senior lawyer argued that once the evidence called is grossly insufficient, there is no evidence. He said the petitioners only called 25 witnesses out of the scores listed.

He further argued that out of the 25 witnesses called by the petitioners, there was no single polling unit agent among them.

Mr Agabi also argued that the first prosecution witness (PW-1) did not file any witness deposition beforehand as required by law and cannot give evidence in an election petition.

Joseph Daudu, in his submission on Ododo’s behalf, said no evidence of the PW1 was admitted as evidence by the court on the ground that he failed to front-load his witness statement beforehand.

Mr Daudu said the tribunal was right to have expunged the evidence of PW1, having declared it inadmissible. He added that the appellants failed to prove the allegation of over-voting in their petition.

He also urged the tribunal to dismiss the allegations of forgery against his client, saying it bordered on a pre-election matter, which the apex court had decided in Gbagi’s case against INEC.

Mr Daudu, who said they failed to prove allegations of over-voting, also argued that Section 137 of the Electoral Act cited by the petitioners on allegations of over-voting did not apply in the instant petition.

He urged the court to dismiss the appeal and affirm the tribunal’s judgment, which upheld the election of Mr Ododo. Corroborating Mr Daudu’s argument, Emmanuel Ukala, who appeared for APC, prayed the appellate court to dismiss the petition for being incompetent.

In the appeal, Mr Ajaka and his party hinged on 31 grounds and insisted that they were the winners of the November 11, 2023, governorship election and should be declared the rightful winner.

While adopting the processes filed on behalf of his client, Pius Akubo urged the court to set aside the judgment of the Kogi governorship election petition tribunal and declare Mr Ajaka as the governor of Kogi.

According to Mr Akubo, the tribunal’s judgement, which affirmed Mr Ododo’s election, was a serious miscarriage of justice.

On May 27, the tribunal affirmed the victory of Mr Ododo of APC in the 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 Mr Ajaka failed to prove the allegations of over-voting and non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 in the petition.

In a unanimous decision, the panel held that all the witness evidence filed before it was incompetent and inconsistent. It also agreed with the respondents’ submissions 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.

(NAN)