The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Thursday, dismissed an appeal by candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Victor Adoji, who claimed the Kogi East Senatorial seat.
The court, in a unanimous decision by a three-man panel of justices, affirmed Jibrin Isah of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner of the Kogi East Senatorial seat.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared that the APC candidate secured a majority lawful votes to win the election that was held on February 25.
Dissatisfied with the outcome, Adoji filed a petition wherein he alleged irregularities and cancellation of results from polling units where the number of Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs, collected, exceeded the margin of win.
He urged the tribunal to nullify Isah’s election and order a supplementary poll in the 94 polling units in the senatorial district where results were cancelled.
In its judgement, Justice K. A. Orjiako acceded to the request of the petitioner and ordered a rerun in the affected polling unit.
Not happy with the verdict, the APC candidate took the matter before the appellate court, alleging that the tribunal wrongly evaluated the proof of evidence that was adduced before it by the parties.
He prayed the court to set aside the decision of the tribunal and affirm the earlier declaration of INEC that returned him as the winner of the senatorial contest.
Delivering its judgement on Thursday, the appellate court held that the tribunal placed reliance on incompetent evidence to arrive at its decision.
The court proceeded to expunge the exhibits of the petition tendered before the tribunal through his witness.
It held that there was merit in the Appellant’s case and accordingly upheld the appeal.
“This appeal succeeds. The judgment of the tribunal is hereby set aside and the Appellant’s victory is sustained and affirmed,” the court held
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