The Supreme Court has affirmed the elections of Douye Diri, Hope Uzodimma and Usman Ododo as winners of the Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states gubernatorial elections.
The court upheld lower court judgements that had declared the three governor’s winner of the elections held across the states.
They were declared winner of the governorship elections held simultaneously across the three states on November 11, 2023 .
In tandem with the date of the poll, the apex court.ruled on the three cases on Friday, ending all litigations surrounding the poll eight months after it was held simultaneously across the three states.
The first case to be held by the apex court was the Bayelsa guber poll, with the five-member panel of the Apex Court headed by Justice Lawal Garba, unanimously ruling in favour of Diri.
The panel dismissed appeal of Timipre Sylva, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), for lacking merit.
The judges affirmed the Court of Appeal decision of July 15 which deemed Sylva’s appeal as an abuse of Court process for filing two notices of appeal.
Citing a section of the 1999 Constitution, the Apex Court panel held that the APC Governorship candidate has only one right to appeal the judgment of the Tribunal and not multiple appeals. The Court therefore faulted the APC Governorship candidate who filed two notices of appeal to the Appellate Court.
In a unanimous judgment the appeal dismissed by the Supreme Court for lacking merit.
On Imo poll, the judges dismissed petitions filled by the duo of Samuel Anyanwu of PDP and Athan Achonu challenging the election of Hope Uzodinma of the APC.
The apex court struck out the cases brought before it by the opposition for lacking in merit and considered the move as an abuse of judicial processes.
In Kogi, the court affirmed the election of Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the gubernatorial poll in the state.
The affirmation followed the dismissal of the appeal of Murtala Ajaka, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who challenged the outcome of the election.
In a unanimous judgment, the Apex Court upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal which on the twenty-seventh of May affirmed the election of Ododo.
The five-man panel held that the allegation of substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act was not proven by the SDP governorship candidate.
It further stated that allegations of age falsification and certificate forgery are pre-election matters which ought to have been ventilated at the Federal High Court which has jurisdiction to hear such matters.
The Supreme Court therefore dismissed Ajaka’s appeal for lacking merit.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had announced that Ododo polled a total of 446,237 votes to defeat Mister Ajaka who came second with 259,052 votes.
