Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello
The Supreme Court, on Monday, 31 August 2020, dismissed the appeal of the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, Musa Wada, challenging the victory of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State at the November 16, 2019 governorship election in the state while affirming the election of Yahaya Bello.
The court upheld the earlier judgment of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, which had on July 4, dismissed the case of the PDP and its candidate. It also validated the majority decision of the Kogi State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal that affirmed governor Bello’s election victory.
A seven-man panel led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Muhammad heard the case of the appellants, the lead judgement was however prepared by Justice Inyang Okoro and read by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji and affirmed Bello’s election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.
The apex court said it was satisfied that the Court of Appeal neither denied the appellants fair hearing nor wrongly evaluated their case against the outcome of the Kogi State governorship poll.
“The appellants failed to prove before this court why it should disturb the concurrent findings of the two courts below”, Justice Okoro held in the lead verdict.
The apex court stressed that the appellants failed to substantiate their case, noting that they adduced evidence with respect to only 24 out of the 729 polling units in the state.
Aside from the CJN, Justices Okoro and Abba-Aji, other members of the panel who also agreed with the lead judgments are Justices Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, Sylvester Ngwuta, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, and Amina Augie.
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