Supreme court upholds Governor Bello's election, dismisses PDP and SDP's petition

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Supreme court upholds Governor Bello's election, dismisses PDP and SDP's petition

The Supreme Court has upheld the re-election of Yahaya Bello as the Governor of Kogi state.

The appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the election, Musa Wada was dismissed by the Court’s seven-man panel led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Ibrahim Tanko, on grounds of lacking merit.

In the lead judgement authored by Justice John Okoro and read by Justice Uwani Abba Aji, the apex court stated that the PDP failed to prove their claim that Bello was not lawfully returned by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the election held November 16, 2019.

A request by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its candidate in the last governorship election in Kogi State, Natasha Akpoti for the nullification of the election of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kog State, was also struck out by the apex court.

According to the apex court, the petition filed by SDP and Akpoti lacked merit as they failed to lead credible and substantial evidence to support their claims.