By Chijioke Kingsley
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the elections 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.
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.
Despite losing at the appellate court, they sought refuge in the Supreme Court to overturn the lower court’s verdict.
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 a unanimous decision, the apex court upheld the earlier decisions of the Court of Appeal and that of the Imo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which sat in Abuja and dismissed the petitions in their separate judgments.
Ododo Vs Ajaka
There was a fierce legal tussle in Kogi State since the then APC candidate, Usman Ododo emerged as the winner of the election.
The electoral body had announced that Ododo polled a total of 446,237 votes to defeat Ajaka who came second with 259,052 votes.
Murtala Ajaka, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, challenged the outcome of the election.
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.
The five-man panel held that the allegation of substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act was not proven by the SDP governorship candidate.
It further stated that allegations of age falsification and certificate forgery are pre-election matters which ought to have been ventilated at the Federal High Court which has jurisdiction to hear such matters.
The Supreme Court therefore dismissed Ajaka’s appeal for lacking merit.
Bayelsa Poll Saga
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.
Citing a section of the 1999 Constitution, the apex court panel held that the APC governorship candidate has only one right to appeal the judgment of the Tribunal and not multiple appeals. The court therefore faulted Sylva who filed two notices of appeal to the appellate court.
In a unanimous judgment, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.
INEC had declared that Governor Diri of the PDP garnered a total of 175,196 votes to defeat his closest rival, Sylva of the APC who polled 110,108 votes.
