By Amuda Dan Sulaiman FAB.
The immediate past governor of Kogi State, Captain Idris Wada has yesterday filed an appeal at the Supreme Court asking the apex court to set aside the majority judgment of the Court of Appeal, which rule that Governor Yahaya Bello was duly elected governor of Kogi State.
In a notice of Appeal dated August 12, 2016 and filed on behalf of the former governor by his counsel, Chris Uche (SAN), the governor established 26 grounds of appeal wherein he raised complaint against the entire judgment of the Court of Appeal.
Wada’s appeal has the Kogi State All Progressives Congress supplementary election governorship candidate, Yahaya Bello; the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission; and his party as respondents.
Wada sought an order of the Supreme Court allowing his appeal and an order of the Court setting aside the judgment /decision of the Court of Appeal.
The former governor among other grounds noted that the Appellate court erred in law when it relied on hearsay and inadmissible evidence to uphold the tribunal’s judgement.
Recall that in his minority judgement, Justice Obande Festus Ogbuinya specifically held that since Bello did not participate in the November 21, 2015 election but only in the December 5, 2015 supplementary poll, he could not be said to have participated in all the stages of the Kogi state governorship election as envisaged by the required law.
“For the avoidance of doubt I hereby reproduce section 141 of the Electoral Act. “An election tribunal or court, shall not under any circumstances, declare any person a winner at an election in which such a person has not fully participated in all the stages of the said election.
Based on this, the learned justice voided the declaration.
Justice Ogbuinya held that INEC ought to have opted for a fresh election immediately Bello was nominated by the All Progressive Party (APC) to replace the late Prince Abubakar Audu who died towards the tail end of the November 21, 2015 gubernatorial election
In his dissenting judgment, the Appeal Court justice held that Bello was not duly elected in the eyes of the law because he did not participate in all the stages of the election as compulsorily demanded by section 141 of the Electoral Act.
In a related development, Chief James Abiodun Faleke, the running mate to late Prince Abubakar Audu, had also filed his appeal at the Supreme Court on Tuesday, 12 August, 2016.
Faleke, is challenging the Appellate court judgement which reaffirmed Governor Yahaya Bello as the duly elected governor of Kogi State.
