Supreme Court Affirms Kogi Governor’s Election
On Friday, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of the Social Democratic Party(SDP) candidate, Muritala Ajaka, in the Kogi State governorship election.
Ajaka contested the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission after the November 11, 2023 election, which declared Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress as the winner.
Following the dismissal of his petition by the Kogi State Election Petition Tribunal, Ajaka took the case to the Court of Appeal in Abuja, where his appeal was also rejected.
In a unanimous decision, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court upheld Ododo’s victory, rejecting Ajaka’s request to nullify the election.
In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Sadiq Umar, he resolved all three issues identified for determination in the appeal against the appellants.
The apex court held that Ajaka’s appeal marked: SC/CV/654/2024 was without merit and proceeded to dismiss it.
Justice Umar held, “This appeal is hereby dismissed for being incompetent and without merit.”
The apex court also dismissed the appeal of the Action Alliance and its governorship candidate, Olayinka Baimoh.
Braimoh was seeking to void the victory of Ododo in an appeal, marked: SC/CV/653/2024.
The Supreme Court, however, dismissed it for being incompetent, adding that the notice of appeal was filed outside the 14 days allowed by law for the filing of such notice.
Umar held that since the preliminary objection filed against the competence of the appeal was meritorious, it was of no use for the court to consider other issues raised in the appeal.
He proceeded to dismiss the appeal and awarded a cost of N5m against the appellants (AA) in favor of the respondents.
Ododo won the Kogi governorship election with a total of 446,237 votes across 13 out of the 21 local government areas in the state, while Ajaka, won eight LGs as the runner-up, with a total of 259,052 votes.
The Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, Dino Melaye, came in third position polling a total of 46,362 votes as he failed to win any LG.
