By Agency Report
The Kogi Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja has scheduled judgment for Monday, May 27, in the petition by Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its candidate in the November 11, 2023, governorship election in Kogi, Murtala Ajaka.
Mr Ajaka and his party are challenging the declaration of Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election.
The three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Ado Birnin-Kudu, announced the date yesterday, May 23, in a message communicated to counsel to the parties through its Secretary, David Mike.
Hearing in the case, which commenced in December last year, ended on May 13 when the SDP, Ajaka, the APC, Ododo and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) adopted their final written addresses, after which the tribunal reserved judgment.
INEC, the APC and Ododo urged the tribunal to dismiss the petition for being unmeritorious.
INEC’s lawyer, Kanu Agabi (SAN), argued that the petition lacked merit and was incompetent, and urged the tribunal to either strike it out or dismiss it.
As Mr Agabi told the tribunal, “It is our humble submission that your work in the determination of this petition is simplified in recent judgments by the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.”
He noted that the Court of Appeal has decided that if the grounds of a petition are inconsistent with one another, and are not consistent with the reliefs, it should be struck out.
Agabi added that the evidence led by the petitioners were grossly insufficient, citing a Supreme Court decision in a case of Tonye Cole against INEC.
He said the Supreme Court’s decision in that case “is to the effect that once the evidence called is grossly insufficient, there is no evidence.”
“In that case, the petitioner filed 305 witness depositions, but only adopted 40 of them. The petitioner only adopted about 13.1 per cent of the witness depositions.
“In this case, (the petition by the SDP and Ajaka) the depositions adopted represent just about 3.6 per cent of their witness depositions,” Agabi said.
He noted that the petitioners only called 25 witnesses, adding that in mathematical calculation of evidence, 3.6 per cent of Ajaka’s witness deposition adopted in the petition amounted to a failure and therefore, ought to be dismissed. (Source: The Nation)
