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Supreme Court upholds election of Kogi gov, Bello

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Bello reveals how he handles security challenges in Kogi

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the governorship election that produced Yahaya Bello of Kogi State.

The court sacked the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Musa Wada.

PDP and Wada, had challenged the emergence of Governor Bello and the All Progressives Congress (APC)

at both the tribunal and the Court of Appeal and lost.

Not satisfied with the rulings, they approached the Supreme Court to seek for justice.

However, in a judgement delivered on Monday by Justice Uwani Abba Aji, the seven man panel of the apex court led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mohammed Tanko, the apex court held that the appeal by the PDP and Wada was devoid of merit.

In a unanimous judgement, they dismissed the appeal.

According to the panel, the petitioners abandoned their pleadings on their written briefs that the election was marred with irregularities at the lower courts.

READ ALSO: Wada vows to go after Bello as Supreme Court affirms him PDP candidate

It held that the petitioners failed to prove their allegations with results from the election and failed to prove that the respondent did not win majority votes in the election.

The panel equally held that the petitioners were unable to prove its claim of electoral malpractices by calling polling unit agents.

The Supreme Court panel said that the forensic expert the appellants called was not a qualified fingerprint expert.

It, meanwhile, said that the appellant only proved over-voting in 24 out of the 729 polling units where elections were conducted.

Wada and the PDP had asked the apex court to annul the victory of Bello on the claims that the exercise was marred by electoral malpractices and irregularities

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