The Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed the Appeal filed by Musa Wada and his party, the People’s Democratic Party and three other appeals filed before it challenging the November 16 2019 Kogi Governorship Election. That returned Governor Yahaya Bello back to the office for a 2nd term.
The five-man panel of Justices held that all the appeals lack merit as some of the Appeals are not in synergy with the decision of the tribunal. In a separate judgment all of which were unanimous, the five-man panel of the court led by Justice Adamu Jauro dismissed the four appeals for lacking in merit.
The appeals dismissed was filed by the People’s Democratic Party and its governorship candidate, Musa Wada, the Social Democratic Party, SDP its governorship candidate, Natacha Akpoti, Democratic Peoples Party, and the Action People’s Party.
They all challenged the November 16 , 2019 kogi governorship election that returned Yahaya Bello as governor.
Wada and his party, the People’s Democratic Party had on December 14, 2019, approached the tribunal, urging it to order the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify governor Bello and return him, Wada as duly elected governor of Kogi State.
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The court held that there were no substantial evidence to prove their allegations .
In the appeal of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its governorship candidate Natacha Akpoti, in which they alleged massive electoral malpractices, unlawful exclusion and falsification of certificates on the part of the deputy governor, Edward Onoja, the court upheld the decision of the tribunal and emphasized that evidence presented before the lower court were contradictory in nature and as such lacks probative value.
The appeal by the Action Peoples Party challenging its exclusion the court held that there was no synergy in the appeal and the judgement of the lower court.
While the appeal filed by the democratic peoples party did not show any valid nomination, therefore the party was not in anyway excluded when it does not have a validly elected candidate in the election .
Lawyers in the appeal reacted differently to the judgement.
Editor :Tunde Orebiyi
