Kogi Governorship: Appeal Court reserves judgment in Ajaka’s appeal against Ododo’s victory

The Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Thursday, reserved judgment in the appeal filed by the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP, Muritala Ajaka, and his party in the 11 November Kogi State governorship election challenging the judgement of the state’s Election Petition Tribunal.

The tribunal had, on 27 May, affirmed the return of Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the duly elected governor of the state.

A three-member justices of the appellate court reserved judgment in the appeal to a date they said would be communicated to parties after the adoption of all their briefs filed in the matter.

Earlier in his submission, 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 Mr Ajaka and his party for lacking in merit.

Murtala Ajaka

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 with one another and were not consistent with the reliefs, it should be struck out.

He also argued that the evidence of the petitioners 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 out of the 25 witnesses called by the petitioners, there was no single polling unit agent among them.

Mr Agabi also argued that the first prosecution witness (PW-1) did not file any witness deposition beforehand as required by law and cannot give evidence in an election petition.

In his submission on Mr Ododo’s behalf, Joseph Daudu (SAN) said no evidence of the PW1 was admitted as evidence by the court on the ground that he failed to front-load his witness statement beforehand.

Mr Daudu said the tribunal was proper 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 pre-election matters, which the apex court had decided in Mr Gbagi’s case against INEC.

Mr Daudu, who said they failed to prove the allegation 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 Mr Ododo.

Corroborating Mr Daudu’s argument, Emmanuel Ukala (SAN), who appeared for the APC, prayed to the Appeal Court to dismiss the petition for being incompetent.

Mr Ajaka and his party hinged on 31 grounds, insisted that they had won the election and should have been 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 tribunal and declare Mr Ajaka as the governor of the state.

According to Mr Akubo, the tribunal’s judgement, which affirmed Mr Ododo’s election, was a serious miscarriage of justice.

It would be recalled that the tribunal, on May 27, affirmed the victory of Governor Ododo in the poll.

The three-member panel of justices, headed by Justice Ado Birnin-Kudu, held that the petition was bereft of substance and accordingly dismissed it.

The tribunal held that the SDP and Mr Ajaka failed to prove the allegations of over-voting and non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022 in the petition.

The panel, in a unanimous decision, held that all the witness evidence filed before it was incompetent and full of inconsistencies.

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It also agreed with the respondents’ submissions that the allegations of forgery raised in the petition were a pre-election matter, which ought to have been raised 14 days after the documents were submitted to INEC.

In the Kogi 2023 election, Mr Ododo of the APC was declared the winner by INEC, beating Mr Ajaka of the SDP and the other candidates by a wide margin. (NAN)