Supreme Court affirms Yahaya Bello’s re-election

The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) and its candidate, Musa Wada against Governor Yahaya Bello, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November 16, 2019, governorship election in Kogi State.

Both the Court of Appeal and the Kogi Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had earlier affirmed the victory of Governor Bello on the basis that Wada and his party failed to show the allegations of electoral malpractices in their petition.

However, Wada last Tuesday requested the Supreme Court to set aside the judgments of the tribunal and that of the court of Appeal and declare him the winner of the election or order a fresh poll.

In the ruling delivered by Justice Uwani Musa Abba Aji on Monday, the seven-man panel of the apex court led by Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mohammed Tanko held that the appeal lacked merit.

The panel, therefore, ruled that the petitioners failed to prove their allegations with results from the poll and failed to prove that the defendant did not win majority votes in the election.

It further ruled that Wada did not produce any evidence to back his claim of electoral malpractices in the election by calling polling unit agents as witnesses.

Furthermore, the Court has sacked the application filed by the Social Democratic Party and Natasha Akpoti against the ruling of the lower courts on her petition against the election of Yahaya Bello.