Supreme Court Dismisses SDP’s Appeal Against Yahaya Bello

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the request by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its governorship candidate, Natasha Akpoti for the nullification of the election of Kogi Governor, Yahaya Bello.

A seven-man panel of the court, led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, was unanimously dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.

Delivering the judgement, Justice Uwani Abba Aji, said it was unnecessary to disturb the concurrent decisions of the tribunal and the Court of Appeal, which upheld Bello’s victory at the election held on November 16, 2019.

The judge held that the SDP and Akpoti failed to lead credible and substantial evidence to support their claims.

Naija News had earlier reported that the apex court also dismissed the appeal of the PDP against Bello’s election.

In the lead judgment prepared by Justice Inyang Okoro but read on his behalf by another member of the panel, Justice Uwani Abba-Aji, the apex court affirmed the earlier July 4, 2020 judgment of the Court of Appeal in Abuja and the May 23, 2020 majority verdict of the election petition tribunal, which had both upheld the Bello’s victory at the poll.

The Apex court in its ruling dismissed all the five appeals filed before the court by the PDP and its governorship candidate, Musa Wada, who jointly filed the appeal.