Supreme Court Affirms Election Of Imo, Kogi, Bayelsa Govs
The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the election of the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, his counterparts in Bayelsa, Duoye Diri and Kogi, Usman Ododo.
Last year, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the trio the winners of the off-cycle governorship poll which held on November 11, 2023 in their respective states.
The three governors secured their victory in different court siting yesterday in Abuja, Channels TV reports.
For Uzodimma, INEC said he polled 540,308 votes to beat Samuel Anyanwu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 71,503 votes; and Athan Achonu of the Labour Party (LP) who secured 64,081 votes.
Not satisfied with the tribunal’s verdict that ruled in Uzodimma’s favour, they approached the appeal court for redress.
Hearing the case in Abuja, the apex court dismissed the two appeals filed by the Labour Party (LP), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and their governorship candidate challenging Uzodimma’s victory at the polls.
The appeals of the LP governorship candidate, Athan Achonu and that of PDP, Samuel Anyanwu, were dismissed for want of merit by the Supreme Court which consequently affirmed Uzodinma as a lawfully elected governor of Imo State.
In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Mohammed Baba Idris, the LP and PDP gubernatorial candidates were said to have failed to establish allegations of overvoting and other malpractices against the November 11, 2023 poll.
In Kogi, Murtala Ajaka, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, petition to unseat Gov. Ododo over allegations of age falsification and certificate forgery were dismissed for lacking merit.
In a unanimous judgment on Friday, the apex court upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal which on May 27 affirmed Ododo’s election.
In Bayelsa, the situation was similar as the apex court affirmed Senator Duoye Diri’s re-election, thus dismissing the appeal of the APC governorship candidate, Timipre Sylva.
A five-member panel of the apex court headed by Justice Lawal Garba, on Friday affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal of July 15 which deemed Sylva’s appeal as an abuse of Court process for filing two notices of appeal.
