The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) on November 11, 2023, Kogi State Governorship Election, Muritala Yakubu Ajaka, and his party have gone to the Court of Appeal, Abuja to challenge the judgment of the State Election Petition Tribunal which affirmed Ahmed Usman Ododo of All Progressives Congress (APC) as the elected governor of the state.
In the record compiled and transmitted to the appellate court through his lawyer, Pius Akubo (SAN) on June 14, the appellants said, the judgment of the Tribunal which affirmed Ododo’s election was a serious miscarriage of justice.
Ajaka and his party, in the appeal, hinged on 31 grounds, insist that they are the winners of the November 11, 2023 governorship election and should be declared the rightful winner.
The appellants who are dissatisfied with the decision of the Kogi State Election Petition Tribunal headed by Hon. Justice Ado Yusuf Birnin Kudu are praying the court for an order setting aside the judgment of the Tribunal, an order restoring the testimony of their first witness (PW1) as well as all the documents they tendered but expunged from the records of the Tribunal.
The appellants also want that Appeal Court to hold that Ododo was not even qualified to have contested the election into the office of Governor of Kogi State and that all votes ascribed and or allocated to him and the APC are wasted votes.
“An order granting the reliefs sought by the appellants in the petition and thereupon declaring him (the 1st Appellant) as the duly elected governor of Kogi”.
It would be recalled that shortly after the judgment of the Tribunal delivered on May 27, 2024, Ajaka said that the long walk to freedom in Kogi State had just begun.
He maintained that throughout the entire process, their team of lawyers exhibited the highest level of professionalism and tenacity, adding that, “They meticulously gathered evidence, scrutinized data and presented a compelling case to the Tribunal.
“Unfortunately, the Tribunal, despite agreeing to the embarrassing overvoting and rigging exercise, struck our case out. I can assure you that this judgment will not stand the test of time. Yes, we may have lost the battle at the Tribunal but the war is far from over. Our stolen mandate and our voice will not be silenced.
“We will reclaim our stolen mandate and restore the faith of our people in the democratic process,” he said.
In his reaction, counsel to the appellants, Pius Akubo (SAN) stressed that the Tribunal agreed that Ajaka filled his case within the stipulated time and that, the three-member panel of Justices of the Tribunal admitted that there was overvoting.
“But in their confusion, they ruled that PW1 who displayed the documents with which they agreed there was voting is not clear to them. They claimed they did not know if he was INEC staff or not”.
The senior lawyer said it was the Tribunal that ordered INEC to provide the BVAS and someone who will power and display the BVAS in court and that PW1 came to the court with a certified letter from INEC stating that he was indeed the representative of INEC.
According to Akubo, PW1 was in court with his ID card and other supporting documents to show he is INEC staff.
“Recall further that when the PW1 was absent from the court, the Tribunal ordered INEC to produce him or produce another person and they did comply to produce him yet the Tribunal said they do not know him. What a contradictory judgment! I want to say that the election of November 11, 2023, in Kogi was not conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act. 2022 as well as manual and guidelines involving the conduct of elections having regards to the numerous instances of over voting”.
He said the appellants demonstrated in a graphic and tabular form before the Tribunal that they scored the majority of lawful votes in the election and not the 2nd and 3rd Respondents.
Akubo said the appellants led evidence to the effects that if the votes affected by over-voting are deducted from the overall votes, the appellants and not the 2nd and 3rd Respondents will have the majority of lawful votes.
Clearly and unambiguously, he said, the Appellants tendered all the necessary election forms and documents which completely demonstrated that the 2nd Respondents did not score the majority of the lawful votes as claimed.
Akubo stated that, a serious miscarriage of justice has been done for not declaring the appellants winners of the November 11, 2023 governorship election in Kogi.
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