The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the appeal of the Social Democratic Party candidate, Muritala Ajaka, in the Kogi State governorship election.
Ajaka had challenged the result announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission after the November 11, 2023 election which produced Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress as winner.
After his petition was dismissed at the Kogi State Election Petition Tribunal, Ajaka appealed the tribunal judgment at the Court of Appeal, Abuja, where his appeal was also dismissed.
A five-member panel of the apex court, in a unanimous decision, affirmed Ododo’s victory as the panel refused to void the election as requested by Ajaka.
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 favour 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.
A total of 18 candidates took part in the election.
