The Supreme Court will on August 31, deliver its judgment in two appeals challenging the emergence of Yahaya Bello of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as Kogi State Governor in the November 16, 2019 governorship election.
The seven-man panel of the apex court, led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, fixed the date on Tuesday, after hearing arguments from lawyers representing the parties.
The appellants – the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Musa Wada, and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its candidate, Natasha Akpoti, dissatisfied with the judgments of the Court of Appeal, which upheld the decisions of the election tribunal that declared Bello as the winner of the election, had prayed the apex court to reverse the judgments.
Addressing the court, counsel to the PDP and its candidate, Jibrin Okutepa (SAN) had prayed the court to grant the reliefs sought in the appeal and set aside the ruling of the court below.
On their part, Joseph Daudu (SAN) and Alex Izinyon (SAN), who appeared for Bello and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) respectively, urged the court to reject the appeal for lacking in merit.
Specifically, Daudu had urged the court not to tamper with the concurrent findings of the tribunal and the Court of Appeal, which declared Bello as validly returned as the winner of the governorship election.
Also, the Supreme Court on Tuesday, struck out the appeal brought before it by the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) and its candidate, Usman Mohammed.