The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the election of Alhaji Yahaya Bello of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the duly elected Governor of Kogi State, but said it would provide reasons for its decision on September 30.
The seven-man panel headed by Justice Sylvester Ngwata, in a unanimously judgment delivered in Abuja, dismissed the claim of James Faleke that he was the rightful candidate for the position.
It affirmed the election after listening to the closing statements of all the counsels.
Faleke was the running mate to the late Abubakar Audu who died before the November 2015 Kogi governorship election was concluded by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Following this development, the APC leadership replaced Audu with Bello, who came second in the governorship primaries that produced the departed as the standard bearer. But Faleke rejected the party’s decision, arguing that he should have stepped into the position, having together with the late Audu gone through the election process.
He went ahead to challenge the decision of the Kogi State governorship election petition tribunal, where he called on the tribunal to declare him the validly elected governor of Kogi State, but the election of Yahaya Bello was upheld.
Faleke, however approached the Supreme Court after being dissatisfied with the judgment of both the election tribunal and Appeal Court which upheld Bello’s eligibility to be the Kogi state governor.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate in the election, Capt. Idris Wada, who came second at the polls, told the State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja that he won the election with 204, 877 votes against 6,885 scored by Yahaya Bello of the APC.
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