Supreme Court upholds Yahaya Bello’s election as Kogi governor

The Supreme Court has upheld the election of Yahaya Bello as the governor of Kogi State.

A seven-man panel of the court said reasons for upholding the election would be provided on September 30.

The court which held all the nation on tenterhooks,  while awaiting the judgement dismissed all the appeals filed by all the parties against Bello’s election last year.

It dismissed the appeal by James Faleke, the deputy governorship candidate of Abubakar Audu, who died before the election result was announced and who was substituted in the supplementary election by Bello.

Faleke contended that Audu had won the election and  there was no need for the supplementary election. He argued further that as the joint holder of Audu’s ticket, he should be declared the winner of the election.

But the justices did not agree with him.

His appeal was dismissed for lacking in merit. The justices affirmed the decisions of the lower courts.

The court  also dismissed  former Governor Idris Wada’s case against Bello.

Also dismissed were appeals filed by the ADC and the Labour Party.

The justices said reasons for all the failed applications would be given on Friday, the 30th of September, 2016.

There were five appeals in all against the Court of Appeal rulings which upheld the election of Governor Bello.

Audu  of the All Progressives Congress died before the final announcement of results election conducted on November 21, 2015 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The election was declared inconclusive.

The re-run held on December 5, 2015 saw the emergence of Bello who became the torch bearer of the party after the death of Audu.

Alhaji Wada, who contested the election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Mr. Faleke had approached the Supreme Court in August challenging Mr. Bello’s victory at the Court of Appeal.

The appellate court had upheld an earlier judgement in June by the Kogi State Governorship Election Tribunal, which gave victory to the governor.

The tribunal in  the judgment read by its chairman, Justice Halima Mohammed said Mr. Faleke’s petition lacked merit and therefore threw it out.

The tribunal further held that the fact that INEC declared the first election inconclusive meant no winner had emerged.

It also said that all votes belonged to political parties and not the candidate who contested on their platforms.

It said Mr. Faleke had no locus standi to challenge Mr. Bello’s nomination by the APC to replace Mr. Audu as he (Audu) was not the governor-elect.