By Kayode Lawal
For the third time, the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Yakubu Ajaka has failed in his bid to invalidate the November 11, 2023 victory of Usman Ahmed Ododo in Kogi State.
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed his joint appeal with the SDP for lacking in merit and substance.
A lead judgment delivered by Justice Sadiq Abubakar Umar threw out the appeal of Ajaka after resolving all the three issues in dispute against him.
The Supreme Court in the unanimous decision held that Ajaka failed to give cogent and verifiable evidence in the series of allegations against Ododo.
Besides, Justice Umar said that most of the allegations were pre-election matters which ought to have been taken to the federal high court for resolution.
The Supreme Court consequently dismissed the appeal but did not award cost against the appellants.
Justice Umar upheld the decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Kogi State Election Petition Tribunal which had earlier dismissed the grievances of Ajaka against the election.
The Court of Appeal ln Abuja had on July 11 affirmed Ahmed Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress as the validly elected governor of Kogi state.
A 3-member panel of the Court had in a unanimous judgment held that the SDP and its governorship candidate, Murtala Ajaka failed to prove the allegations contained in their petition challenging Ododo’s election beyond reasonable doubt as required by law.
The appellate court had said that the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which sat in Abuja was right to have expunged the evidence of the first witness called by the petitioners for been hearsay evidence.
According to the court, the allegation of forgery of document which Ododo was alleged to have submitted to INEC was declared a pre-election matter which ought to have been handled by the Federal High Court and not the post election Tribunal.
It will be recalled that the tribunal had on May 27 affirmed the victory of Ododo and APC in the November 11, 2023 Kogi governorship election.
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