The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja reserved its judgment in the appeal filed by Muritala Ajaka, the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), on Thursday.
Murtala Ajaka is challenging the May 27, 2024, decision of the state election petition tribunal.
The off-cycle election held on November 11, 2023, saw Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) declared the winner.
Ajaka, who was Ododo’s closest rival, finished in second place according to the results announced by the electoral body.
A three-member panel of the tribunal had previously upheld Ododo’s victory, finding that Ajaka and the SDP had not provided sufficient evidence to support their claims of excessive voting and breaches of the Electoral Act of 2022.
The panel unanimously ruled that the witness testimonies presented by Ajaka were inconsistent and defective.
Joseph Daudu, representing the state governor at the appeal, argued that none of the evidence provided by PW1 (the first petitioner’s witness) was admitted because the appellants failed to front-load the witness statement beforehand.
Daudu defended the tribunal’s decision to exclude PW1’s evidence, stating that the appellants had not proven their allegations of over-voting.
He also contended that the allegations of forgery against his client were related to a pre-election matter, which had already been settled in the case of Gbagi against INEC.
Daudu further argued that Section 137 of the Electoral Act, which was cited by the petitioners regarding over-voting allegations, did not apply to this case.
He asked the court to dismiss the appeal and uphold the tribunal’s judgment affirming Ododo’s election.
Emmanuel Ukala, counsel for the APC, also urged the appellate court to dismiss the petition, describing it as incompetent.
On the other hand, Pius Akubo, representing Ajaka, called for the appellate court to overturn the judgment of the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and declare Ajaka the governor of Kogi State.
Ajaka and his party, in their appeal based on 31 grounds, insisted that they were the rightful winners of the November 11, 2023, governorship election and should be declared as such.
They argued that the tribunal’s judgment was a serious miscarriage of justice and asked the panel to dismiss the cross-appeal filed by the respondents who sought to have Ajaka’s petition dismissed.
