Dennis Erezi
The Kogi State Governorship elections petition tribunal sitting in Abuja on Monday affirms Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as governor of Kogi State.
The court dismissed the petition of Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for failure to substantially prove material facts in his petition as required by law.
The three-member panel of justices, headed by Justice Ado Birnin-Kudu said the petitioner had failed to sufficiently adduce credible evidence in line with the relevant laws to warrant the success of his petition.
In a unanimous judgment the court held that in line with section 135 of the Electoral Act, the petitioner failed to prove that the irregularities alleged were substantial enough to affect the entire election.
The court further held that the petitioner, according to law, is duty-bound to lead evidence to show that there was substantial inconsistency and also show how the irregularities are enough to affect the outcome of the election .
On the alleged forgery of documents by the petitioner, the court also held that the petitioner failed to prove that the documents alleged to have been forged were tendered to the Independent National Electoral commission(INEC) by the defendant and also failed to present the document from where they were forged.
The court said the petitioner merely dumped the exhibit in court without calling the relevant makers of such documents to demonstrate the applicability of the document to the petition.
The judge also held that petitioners’ evidence tendered through the bar without properly speaking to such, denied it of any probative value.
The court said that both the video evidence and other documents were merely dumped in the court as they failed to demonstrate the relevance of documents to the court.
Kogi held its off-cycle election on November 11, 2023, in which Usman Ododo of the All Progressive Congress (APC) emerged victorious, beating his closest rival, Ajaka of the SDP.
Ajaka, dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, had filed a petition before the governorship election tribunal, challenging Ododo’s victory.
The petitioner had argued that the candidate of the APC in the elections was wrongly declared by Independent National electoral commission ( INEC) having failed to substantially complied with the relevant laws and regulations
He also held that the governor was not qualified to contest for the election as at the time of the elections.
The petitoner had also challenged the validity of the election in Five local government areas of the state for alleged over voting, from where he called 25 witnesses to testify in support of his claim.
In his response Ododo urged the court to dismiss the petition for lacking in merit, submitted that the witnesses called by the petitoner are not incompetent witness by law and as such document submited by them should be discontenances.
According to him that petitioners’ allegations are hollow and frivolous such that it cannot be substantiated and therefore should be dismissed.
The case, which commenced in December 2023, came to its highest point on May 13 when SDP, Ajaka, APC, Ododo, and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) adopted their final written addresses, after which the tribunal reserved judgment in the petition.
The court in its judgment said the petitioner have failed to prove the beliefs sought in the petition.
“I Hold that that November 11 governorship election of Kogi State is conducted in substantial compliance with the law and the petition is accordingly dismissed.”
