Supreme Court begins hearing of Bayelsa, Kogi Guber election disputes Aug 19

The Supreme Court of Nigeria will on Monday, August 19 begin hearing and final resolutions of electoral disputes that arose in the conduct of governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi States in 2023.

At the centre of the disputes are Douye Diri and Ahmed Usman Ododo who were declared winners of the poll for Bayelsa and Kogi respectively by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, last year.

Their challengers are a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva and Muritala Yakubu Ajaka of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Social Democratic Party, SDP, respectively who are aggrieved by the declarations made by INEC on the outcome of the elections.

However, the separate Governorship Election Petition Tribunals and the Court of Appeal both of which sat in Abuja in their respective findings affirmed the declaration of the electoral body on various grounds.

Not satisfied with the Tribunal and Court of Appeal decisions, both Sylva and Ajaka are expected to present their grievances before the Supreme Court on Monday.

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A notice for hearing of the matters just sighted by Newspot and already served on parties in the two appeals showed that the outgoing Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Olukayode Ariwoola constituted two different panels to adjudicate in the matters.

Names of the two 5-member panels were, however, not revealed in the hearing notice which sources said was the last official assignment of the outgoing CJN.

Newspot observed that the hearing notice for Governor Douye Diri was served on his lead counsel, Chris Uche SAN while that of Sylva was handed over to Tunde Falola among others.

At the time of this report, it was gathered that adequate security arrangements have been put in place to prevent security breaches in and outside court premises throughout the proceedings.

The Court of Appeal in Abuja had on July 18 in a unanimous judgment affirmed the decision of the Bayelsa Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which had upheld the November 11, 2023, re-election of Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State.

A 3-man panel of the appellate court had in the judgment dismissed an appeal brought before the Court by Timipre Sylva and APC seeking to set aside the decision of the Tribunal.

The Justice Adekunle Adeleye-led three-member tribunal had on May 27, dismissed the petition filed against Governor Diri’s re-election by the APC and its candidate for lacking in merit.

The tribunal had held that both Sylva and APC failed to adduce any credible evidence to substantiate any of the allegations they raised against the outcome of the governorship poll.

In the same vein, the Court of Appeal in Abuja had also on July 11 affirmed Ahmed Usman Ododo of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the validly elected governor of Kogi State.

A 3-member panel of the Court had in a unanimous judgment held that the Social Democratic Party, SDP, and its governorship candidate, Murtala Yakubu Ajaka failed to prove the allegations contained in their petition challenging Ododo’s election beyond reasonable doubt as required by law.

The appellate court had said that the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which sat in Abuja was right to have expunged the evidence of the first witness called by the petitioners for hearsay evidence.

According to the court, the allegation of forgery of documents which Ododo was alleged to have submitted to INEC was declared a pre-election matter which ought to have been handled by the Federal High Court and not the post-election Tribunal.

It will be recalled that the tribunal had on May 27 affirmed the victory of Ododo and APC in the November 11, 2023, Kogi governorship election