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  • Appeal Court affirms Natasha Akpoti winner of Kogi Central Senatorial Seat

    Appeal Court affirms Natasha Akpoti winner of Kogi Central Senatorial Seat

    The Court of Appeal, Abuja, on Tuesday, affirmed the election victory of Natasha Akpoti-Uduagan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the Kogi Central Senatorial election held in February.

    The three-member panel, in a judgment, upheld the judgment of the state’s election tribunal and dismissed the appeal filed by Sen. Abubakar Ohere of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The court agreed with the submission of counsel for Akpoti-Uduagan, Mr Joshua Usman, SAN, for being meritorious.

    The appellate court also awarded the sum of N500, 000 against the Ohere.

    The Kogi State National and State Assemblies Tribunal, had, on Sept  6, declared Akpoti-Uduagan the validly elected candidate for the poll.

    The tribunal also invalidated the victory of Sen. Ohere.

    The Tribunal Chairman, Justice K. A. Orjiako, delivered the unanimous judgment of the three-man panel, revealing that Sen. Ohere’s results were inflated in nine polling units in the Ajaokuta Local Government Area.

    He added that the Independent National Electoral Commission reduced Natasha’s results in those areas and omitted the results of three other polling units meant for Natasha in the same LGA.

    Following the necessary corrections, the court declared Natasha as the winner of the election with 54,074 votes, surpassing Ohere, who garnered 51,291 votes.

    But unsatisfied, Ohere approached the Court of Appeal seeking to upturn the election.

  • Court dismiss suit against Natasha

    Court dismiss suit against Natasha

    The Federal High Court sitting in Lokoja on Friday dismissed a suit challenging the nomination of an Abuja based lawyer, Barrister Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan as the Senatorial candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for Kogi Central.

    The case which was presided over by Justice Peter Mallong held that the legal action instituted by another contestant, Adamu Atta was grossly incompetent and incurably defective and thereby robbed the court jurisdiction to entertain it.

    Atta had in his Originating Summons, alleged that Akpoti-Uduaghan did not win the primary election of the PDP for Kogi Central Senatorial District for the 2023 General election and therefore called for the nullification of her nomination.

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    He claimed among others, “that the May 25 primary election which produced Akpoti-Uduaghan was flawed and not validly conducted as required by law.”

    The plaintiff asked the court to void and set aside the primary election as well as the eventual nomination of the defendant.

    However, The defending counsel to Akpoti-Uduaghan, Johnson Usman SAN objected to hearing of the suit on the grounds that the Originating Summon was not endorsed as required by law.

    The Senior Advocate in his preliminary objection against the legal action relied on section 97 of the Sheriff and Civil Process Act to establish that the originating summon was incurably defective and incompetent having not been endorsed in line with provisions of the law.

    Besides the incompetence of the originating summon, “Akpoti -Uduaghan had in her counter affidavit averred that the primary election conducted on 25th May, 2022 was monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and that she validly won, attaching the result, delegates list and INEC report.”

    In his judgment, Justice Mallong agreed with Usman SAN that the suit was improperly commenced and that the Court lacked jurisdiction to hear it and subsequently dismissed it in its entirety.