The Supreme Court will on Tuesday September 20 deliver judgment in two separate appeals by former governor of Kogi State, Idris Wada and former governorship running mate, James Faleke on the state governorship. The apex court may hear and decide both appeals same day and fix a different date for the underlying reasons as had been the pattern since the disputes on the 2015 general elections in order to avoid any external influences in its verdict. Wada and Faleke, who was the running mate to late Abubakar Audu in the governorship of election of November 21, 2015, had both appealed the decision of the Appeal Court which upheld the election of Governor Yahaya Bello.
In a unanimous judgment by a five-member panel of justices read by Justice Jummai Sankey on August 4, 2016, the appellate court upheld the verdict of the Kogi State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja, which dismissed James Faleke’s petition. But in Wada’s appeal, Justice Obande Festus Ogbuinya gave a dissenting judgment cancelling the election of Bello on the grounds that he was not validly nominated for the election following Audu’s death and he failed to nominate a running mate before the election. He ordered the withdrawal of the governor’s Certificate of Return and the conduct of fresh election in the state. The dissenting judgement is causing some concerns to lawyers of the governor as one of them, who pleaded anonymity, said it could determine the entire case.
Source: DAILY TRUST
