Kogi’s First Female Senator, Natasha, Gets Certificate Of Return, To Be Sworn In Thursday

Barring last-minute change of plan, the Senator-elect for Kogi Central senatorial district of Kogi State, Barr. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, will be sworn in as a member of the 10th Senate on Thursday, November 2, 2023.

This is following her presentation with a Certificate of Return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the duly elected Senator for Kogi Central on Wednesday.

Natasha, elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), becomes the first female Senator from Kogi State.

LEADERSHIP recalls that the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, had on Tuesday, affirmed Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan as the duly elected Senator for Kogi Central senatorial district of Kogi State.

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The appellate court affirmed the judgement of the Kogi State National/State Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal, which earlier pronounced Akpoti-Uduaghan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the rightful winner of the February 25 National Assembly elections as against Abubakar Sadiq Ohere of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who was earlier declared winner of the exercise by INEC.

Recall that Ohere, being dissatisfied with the verdict of the Tribunal, had approached the Appeal Court for respite.

But, a three-man panel of Justtices of the appellate court affirmed the judgement of the Tribunal shortly after it dismissed Ohere’s appeal for lacking in merit.

According to the superior court, the appellant failed to provide convincing evidence why the judgement of the Tribunal should be set aside in his favour.

Justice Hamma Barka of the Appeal Court subsequently held that Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan of the PDP, having won the majority of lawful votes cast at the poll, is winner of the Kogi Central Senatorial District poll.

LEADERSHIP recalls that Barr. Akpoti-Uduaghan had contested the initial declaration of Ohere as winner of the election by INEC on the grounds that the electoral commission failed to input election results from Ajaokuta, Adavi and Okehi local government areas of the senatorial district, whose votes gave her the winning margin above Ohere.

The rejected and excluded results were then added to the overall results by the Tribunal, which then revealed that the PDP candidate won the majority of lawful votes cast at the poll.

The appellate court in rejecting the APC candidate’s appeal held that INEC, which has the duty of conducting and collating election results, failed to provide reasons why the results of the elections in the affected local government areas were rejected and excluded from the overall results in the first place.