The Supreme Court has affirmed the election of Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the rightful winner of the Kogi State governorship election held on November 11, 2023.
The ruling came as a significant setback for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its candidate, Muritala Ajaka, who had challenged the election results.
A five-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice Sadiq Umar, delivered the judgment, dismissing the appeal filed by the SDP and Ajaka on the grounds that it lacked merit. The court resolved all three issues raised by the appellants in favor of Ododo and the APC.
This decision follows a previous ruling by the Appeal Court, which had also upheld the judgment of the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal. On July 11, a three-member panel of the appellate court, presided over by Justice Onyekachi Otisi, ruled that the SDP and Ajaka had failed to substantiate their claims of election irregularities and forgery beyond a reasonable doubt, as required by law.
Justice Otisi’s judgment echoed the tribunal’s earlier decision, which had dismissed the evidence presented by the petitioners as “documentary hearsay” and deemed their witnesses incompetent due to non-compliance with electoral laws. The tribunal had also rejected allegations of forgery against Ododo, stating that such claims were pre-election matters and should have been addressed in a Federal High Court, not during the election tribunal proceedings.
The tribunal had initially upheld Ododo’s victory on May 27, 2024, after rejecting the claims of over-voting and non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2022. The panel of justices ruled unanimously that the petitioners had failed to present credible evidence to support their allegations.
The November 2023 election in Kogi State saw Ododo emerge as the clear winner, defeating Ajaka by a wide margin. Despite the SDP’s attempt to overturn the results, the court’s decisions at various levels have consistently upheld the legitimacy of Ododo’s win.
Ajaka and the SDP had sought to challenge the declaration of Ododo as the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), but their efforts have now been conclusively dismissed by the highest court in the land.
