Appeal court affirms Yahaya Bello as Kogi gov
The court of appeal sitting in Abuja has affirmed the election of Yahaya Bello as governor of Kogi state.
In a separate but unanimous judgement on Saturday, the five-man panel of the court led by Adamu Jauro dismissed four appeals against the polls for lacking in merit.
The appeals were filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Actions Peoples Party (APP), the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP).
Bello, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was reelected as governor of the state on November 16, 2019.
Bello polled 406,222 votes to defeat Musa Wada of the PDP who polled 189,704, and Natasha Akpoti of the SDP, who got 9,482.
The governor won in 12 out of the 21 local government areas of the state, according to results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The governorship election petition tribunal had earlier dismissed a suit filed by the SDP and Akpoti.
Akpoti and her party had instituted the suit challenging Bello’s victory on the grounds that irregularities marred the election.
However, the tribunal held that the petitioners failed to prove the allegations of over-voting, massive thumb printing, voter intimidation and other electoral malpractices.
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