According to the court, the appellant failed to provide convincing evidence why the declaration of Akpoti-Uduaghan as winner of the poll should be set aside.
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Tuesday affirmed Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan as the winner of the election for Kogi Central senatorial district of Kogi State held on February 25, 2023.
The Kogi State National/State Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal had earlier ruled that Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won the election.
Abubakar Sadiku-Ohere of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was earlier declared winner of the poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
A three-man panel of the appellate court dismissed Sadiku-Ohere’s appeal for lacking in merit.
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Natasha Akpoti declared winner of Kogi Central senatorial poll
According to the court, the appellant failed to provide convincing evidence why the declaration of Akpoti-Uduaghan as winner of the poll should be set aside.
Akpoti-Uduaghan had contested the initial declaration of Sadiku-Ohere as winner of the election by INEC on the grounds that the electoral commission failed to input election results from Ajaokuta, Adavi and Okehi local government areas of the senatorial district, whose votes gave her the winning margin above Sadiku-Ohere.
The rejected and excluded results were then added to the overall results by the tribunal, which then revealed that the PDP candidate won the majority of lawful votes cast at the poll.
