Civil society group, Electoral Integrity and Good Governance Initiative, has appealed to the Supreme Court judges handling the Kogi State governorship election appeal before it to look into the case properly to correct what they described as “the mistake of the lower courts.”
In a statement made available to journalists, the group’s spokesman, Dr Kolawole Abiodun, said the inconsistencies witnessed in the Kogi State Governorship case, compared to Bayelsa State, call for serious concern.
According to him, in the Kogi State SDP versus APC case, the election petition tribunal, despite compelling BVAS evidence displayed openly on the order of the court, exposed clear discrepancies between the number of accredited voters and the final results in all the polling units in contention, the tribunal went ahead to dismiss it on the grounds of not proving beyond reasonable doubt.
He noted that in the Bayelsa APC Vs PDP case, the tribunal and the Appeal Court affirmed the judgement in favour of the PDP based on missing BVAS evidence the APC gubernatorial candidate did not produce to prove over-voting.
The statement adds that the Bayelsa judgement appears to set a precedent for the importance of BVAS in the electoral process as it was introduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as a means to ensure transparency and accountability in the voting process.
The group expressed confidence in the Supreme Court’s ability to deliver impartial and well-reasoned judgement.
