The Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal filed by the Social Democratic Party, SDP, and its candidate, Natasha Akpoti, challenging the decision of the Kogi State Election Petition Tribunal which dismissed her petition for lacking in merit.
In the judgement delivered by Justice Mohammed Idris on Friday, the court held that the lower court was right to have dismissed the petition because there was no overwhelming evidence to prove the case.
The Kogi State Election Petition Tribunal in its judgement on a consolidated Senatorial Election Petition by Natasha Hadiza Akpoti and the SDP against the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the All Progressive Congress, APC, and Yakubu Oseni who was returned as Senator representing Kogi Central District Senatorial seat, the Tribunal held that the petition by Akpoti and SDP was incompetent and the evidence relied upon amount to hearsay.
The Petitioners presented 22 witnesses, while the first respondent, INEC, presented no witness. The second respondent, APC, presented one witness while third respondent, Yakubu Oseni presented a total of 10 witnesses.
