S’Court Affirms Ododo’s Election as Kogi Governor 

Alex Enumah in Abuja 

The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the election of Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as duly elected governor of Kogi State.

A five-member panel of the appellate court held that the case of the appellants lacked merit and subsequently dismissed it.

Murtala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) had cited issues of alleged substantial non-compliance, amongst others as grounds for the apex court to nullify the election of Ododo.

But, the apex court held that both the tribunal and the appellate courts were right in holding that Ajaka’s evidence was not strong enough to sway them.

Besides, the apex court further held that allegations of age falsification and certificate forgery are pre-election matters, which ought to be heard by the Federal High Court and not the tribunal.

The panel subsequently dismissed Ajaka’s appeal for lacking merit.

INEC had announced that Ododo polled a total of 446,237 votes to defeat Ajaka who came second with 259,052 votes.