The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kogi Stste chapter, says it has accepted in good faith, decision of the Supreme Court dismissing its appeal against the election of Governor Yahaya Bello.
The Party, in a statement by the state Publicity Secretary, Bode Ogunmola, on Monday in Lokoja, said it accepted in good faith the ruling of the Apex Court and left the “final judgement in the hands of God.”
It commended the party’s flagbearers in the November 16, 2019 hovernorship election, Mr Musa Wada, and his running mate, Mr Sam Aro, for their perseverance.
“While the higher court in the land has given its verdict, the PDP has no choice than to accept it and go ahead to appreciate the resilience of members and the teeming supporters of the party,” the party said.
The party also appreciated its legal team and paid tribute to all those who either died, got maimed or injured during the election.
“We thank God for the grace and the courage to go this far. We believe that He has the ultimate say,” the party said.
The apex court, on Monday, dismissed the appeals by Musa Wada of the PDP and Natasha Akpoti of Social Democratic Party (SDP) challenging Bello’s re-election for lacking in merit.
In a unanimous judgement read by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, the Supreme Court held that the cases of the appellants were devoid of merit as they failed to prove allegations made in their separate petitions.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Bello winner of the November 16 governorship election having scored majority of votes cast in the election.
However, citing substantial non compliance and other electoral malpractices, four contestants had approached the Kogi Governorship Election Petition Tribunal to nullify the emergence of Bello as winner of the November 16 governorship poll.
The SDP and Akpoti, in addition to claims of electoral irregularities that allegedly marred the election, sought for the disqualification of Bello and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) on grounds of alleged forgery and falsehood by the Deputy Governor, Mr Edward Onoja.
Onoja was accused of giving false information of a fundamental nature as well as forging documents attached to his form CF 001 submitted to INEC in aid of his qualification for the position of deputy governor.
However, both election tribunal and the Court of Appeal had, in their concurrent decisions, dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit, forcing the appellants to approach the apex court to set aside the concurrent judgements that returned Bello as Governor.
The apex court in its judgement held that, “there was no reason to interfere with the judgements of the court of appeal and tribunal”.
According to the apex court justices, the appellants did not provide particulars of forgery to support claim of forgery against the deputy governor.
It further held that there was no evidence of rigging nor evidence that the respondents connived among themselves to rig the election.
On the issue of exclusion, Justice Abba-Aji, noted that the appellants blew hot and cold at the same time when they in one breath said that the logo of the SDP was not on the result sheet while in another said, it was written in long hand.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Bello, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the governorship poll, having won majority of votes cast and the spread threshold in the election.
However, four contestants and their parties, including Wada and the PDP, had disagreed with INEC and subsequently approached the Kogi State Election Petitions Tribunal to challenge the victory of Bello.
The other petitioners are the Actions Peoples Party (APP), the SDP and the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP).
However, their petitions were all dismissed by the tribunal for lacking in merit.
Similarly, the Court of Appeal agreed that the cases of the appellants lacked merit and even dismissed some with cost against some appellants.
The Court of Appeal had in its judgement held that the allegations of over-voting, multiple thumb-printing, and results falsification were not proved by the appellants.
In the split ruling delivered by Justice Haruna Tsamani, the appellate court held that the appellants merely dumped documents on the tribunal without calling relevant witnesses to link the documents to the allegation of over-voting.
According to him, a party who alleges over-voting must tender the voter registers for the affected polling units and the results of the polling units, show how, without over-voting, the results would be in his or her favour.
While the majority judgement delivered by Justice Kashim Kaigama favoured Bello, the minority judgement delivered by Justice Ohimai Ovbiagele held that there was evidence of electoral malpractices in seven LGAs of the state.
Ovbiagele subsequently upturned Bello’s victory and ordered a rerun in the seven affected local government areas of the state.
