Tribunal affirms election of Gov Bello

The Kogi Governorship Election Petition Tribunal on Saturday, upheld the election victory of Yahaya Bello as governor of the state.

Bello contested the November 16 election as incumbent governor and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC ).

After he was declared winner of the poll, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Musa Wada petitioned the state election tribunal.

In their petition, they challenged Bello’s victory, alleging that the election was characterised by irregularities, violence, ballot snatching and stuffing, and non-compliance with the electoral act, constitution and INEC’s guideline for governorship elections.

READ ALSO: Edo, Ondo elections will go as planned —INEC

But in its ruling, the tribunal said the petition lacked substantial evidence and struck it out.

The tribunal also cited the Supreme Court ruling, where it held, that manual accreditation is still part of our laws and the manuals and guidelines of INEC on use of card reader machine cannot override the provisions of the Electoral Act on manual accreditation.

According to the tribunal it would be fatal for a petitioner to only want to use card reader report to show proof of over voting or non-accreditation of voters.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now