The Court of Appeal, Abuja, has reserved judgment in the appeal filed by Muritala Ajaka, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, and his party in the November 11, 2023 Kogi State governorship election challenging the verdict of the State’s Election Petition Tribunal.
The tribunal affirmed Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the duly elected governor of Kogi on May 27, 2024.
A three-member justices of the appellate court reserved judgment in the appeal to a date that would be communicated to parties after they had adopted all their briefs filed in the matter.
Earlier in his submission, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), while adopting the briefs filed on behalf of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), prayed the court to dismiss the appeal filed by Ajaka and his party for lacking in merit.
He said there were inconsistencies in the case of the appellants.
He argued that the Appeal Court had decided that if the grounds of a petition were inconsistent and were not consistent with the reliefs, it should be struck out.
He also argued that the petitioners‘ evidence was grossly insufficient, citing a Supreme Court decision.
The senior lawyer argued that once the evidence called is grossly insufficient, there is no evidence.
He said the petitioners only called 25 witnesses out of the scores listed.
He further argued that of the 25 witnesses called by the petitioners, no single polling unit agent was present.
Agabi also argued that the 1st prosecution witness (PW-1) did not file any witness deposition beforehand as required by law and cannot give evidence in an election petition.
Joseph Daudu (SAN), in his own submission on Ododo’s behalf, said the court admitted no single piece of evidence from the PW1 because he failed to front-load his witness statement beforehand.
Daudu said the tribunal was right to have expunged the evidence of PW1, having declared it inadmissible and added that the appellants failed to prove the allegation of overvoting in their petition.
He also urged the tribunal to dismiss the allegations of forgery against his client, saying it bordered on a pre-election matter, which the apex court had decided in Gbagi’s case against INEC.
Daudu, who said they failed to prove allegations of over-voting, also argued that Section 137 of the Electoral Act cited by the petitioners on allegations of over-voting did not apply in the instant petition.
He urged the court to dismiss the appeal and affirm the judgement of the tribunal, which upheld the election of Ododo.
Corroborating Daudu’s argument, Emmanuel Ukala (SAN), who appeared for APC, prayed the Appeal Court to dismissed the petition for being incompetent.
Ajaka and his party, in the appeal, hinged on 31 grounds, insisted that they are the winners of the Nov. 11, 2023 governorship election and should be declared the rightful winner.
While adopting the processes filed on behalf of his client, Pius Akubo,,SAN, urged the court to set aside the judgement of the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and declare Ajaka as the governor of the state.
According to Akubo, the tribunal‘s judgement confirming Ododo’s election was a serious miscarriage of justice.
