The Kogi state governorship election petition tribunal sitting in Abuja has affirmed Yahaya Bello as the winner of the 2019 election.
Bello polled 406,222 votes to defeat Musa Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 189,704 votes during the election.
Musa Wada, governorship candidate of the PDP, had approached the tribunal to challenge the victory of Bello and the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the poll.
Jibril Okutepa, counsel to the petitioners, had urged the tribunal to uphold the petition and declare Wada as the duly elected governor of Kogi state.
Okutekpa submitted that his clients won the majority of lawful votes cast in the election.
They called a total of 32 witnesses to prove their claim that the election was marred by irregularities, violence, ballot snatching and non-compliance with the electoral act and the constitution.
Joseph Daudu, who represented Bello and the APC, said the petitioners were unable to prove their claims, and urged the court to dismiss the petition. Only one witness was called.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was represented by Alex Izinyon and no witness was called.
Delivering the judgement on Saturday, two out of three judges on the panel upheld Bello’s election as governor.
However, Ohimai Ovbiagele, one of the judges gave a dissenting decision in favour of Wada. (The Cable)
