KOGI: Court reserves judgment in SDP, PDP candidates’ appeals 

The Court of Appeal on Monday reserved judgment in two suits filed by the duo of Natacha Akpoti of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and her Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Musa Wada.

The duo are challenging the decision of the Kogi governorship election petition tribunal which upheld the victory of Governor Yahaya Bello in the state governorship election held on November 16, 2019.

A five-member panel of the appellate court headed by Justice Adamu Jauro reserved judgements in the matters after hearing arguments from all parties in the appeal.

Jauro said the judgements were reserved and a date would be communicated to the parties.

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Akpoti and her party are challenging the tribunals’ decision, saying the panel erred in its judgement on the matter.

She alleged that the tribunal did not take into consideration the evidence and exhibits in support of her case.

Akpoti was excluded from the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The trio of Joseph Daudu (SAN), Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN) for and Ahmed Raji (SAN) who are counsel for Governor Bello, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and INEC respectively filed preliminary objection challenging the competence of the appeal.

They urged the court to hold that the entire appeal is incompetent.

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