The Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, has upheld the ruling of the election petition tribunal which removed Abubakar Ohere of All Progressives Congress (APC), and declared Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the duly elected Senator for the Kogi Central Senatorial District.
The Appeal Court gave the judgment on Tuesday while ruling on a case filed before it by Ohere.
With the Appeal Court victory, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who hails from Okehi local government area, thus become the first female National Assembly member from Kogi State.
The appellate court upheld the earlier ruling of the Tribunal which declared Natasha as the winner of the February 25, 2023 Kogi Central senatorial election.
The Appeal Court in its ruling held that the Tribunal was right in its judgment, adding that the results of the polling units in Ganaja Ward were unlawfully and deliberated omitted from the collation of results when INEC is duty bound to accept such results.
The appellate court further stressed that the petitioners failed to tender any other result to challenge the results tendered by the appellants.
“No evidence was adduced to justify the claim of overcoming in the polling units. There is no reason whatsoever for rejecting the votes of the polling units.
“The area challenged by the petitioners for not being allowed to challenge the results of the election is outside the respondent petitions. Petitioners cannot challenge the result that was used to declare them as the winner. The petition is hereby dismissed for lacking in merit”, the Appeal court held.
The Appellate Court further ordered the petitioners; Sadiku Abubakar Ohere and APC to pay the sum of N500,000 as fine to Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and PDP.
