Court of Appeal Affirms Ododo as Kogi State Governor

The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Thursday affirmed Ahmed Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the validly elected governor of Kogi State.

In a unanimous judgment, a three-member panel of justices held that the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its governorship candidate, Murtala Yakubu Ajaka, failed to prove the allegations in their petition challenging Ododo’s election beyond a reasonable doubt, as required by law.

The appellate court upheld the decision of the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which had ruled to expunge the evidence of the first witness called by the petitioners, deeming it hearsay.

The court noted that the allegation of forgery of documents submitted by Ododo to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is a pre-election matter that should be handled by the Federal High Court, not the Tribunal.

Having resolved all issues raised in the appeal against the appellants, the court dismissed the appeal for lacking merit and upheld the Tribunal’s judgement.

The Tribunal had, on May 27, affirmed Ododo’s victory in the November 11, 2023, Kogi State governorship poll.

The three-member panel of justices ruled that the petition was without substance and accordingly dismissed it.

Ajaka and his party had approached the Court of Appeal seeking an order to set aside the Tribunal’s judgement, restore the testimony of their first witness (PW1), and reinstate all the documents they tendered that were expunged from the Tribunal’s records.

The appellants also requested the Appeal Court to hold that Ododo was not qualified to contest the election for Governor of Kogi State and that all votes ascribed to him and the APC should be considered wasted votes.