The Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, the Nation’s capital, has upheld the election of Governor Yahaya Bello of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the 2019 governorship election.
The tribunal gave the judgement on Saturday while dismissing the case filed by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Musa Wada, challenging Bello’s victory.
Wada had approached the tribunal to challenge the declaration of Bello and the APC by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winners of the poll.
Counsel to the PDP and Wada, Jibril Okutepa, had prayed the tribunal to uphold the petition and declare Wada as the duly elected governor of Kogi state.
Okutekpa submitted that his clients won the majority of lawful votes cast in the election.
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TheCable reports that the PDP called a total of 32 witnesses to prove their claim that the election was marred by irregularities, violence, ballot snatching and non-compliance with the electoral act and the constitution.
Joseph Daudu, who represented Bello and the APC, said the petitioners were unable to prove their claims, and urged the court to dismiss the petition. Only one witness was called.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was represented by Alex Izinyon and no witness was called.
Delivering the judgement on Saturday, two out of three judges on the panel upheld Bello’s election as governor.
However, Ohimai Ovbiagele, one of the judges gave a dissenting decision in favour of Wada.
In a dissenting judgment, Ovbiagele nullified the election of Bello and ordered INEC to conduct fresh elections in seven local government areas where the petitioners proved their allegations of over-voting, thuggery, voter intimidation, massive thumb printing and other electoral malpractices.
In a majority judgment read by Kashim Kaigama, the tribunal held that the petitioners failed to prove the allegations of over-voting, massive thumb printing, voter intimidation and other electoral malpractices.
The tribunal also ordered the petitioners to pay N500,000 each to INEC, Yahaya Bello and APC who are the respondents.
