Akpoti-Uduaghan: Appeal Court Upholds Election as Kogi Central PDP Candidate

The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal on Thursday dismissed the appeal filed against an Abuja-based lawyer and 2023 Peoples Democratic Party candidate for Kogi Central Senatorial District, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.

The Court presided by Justice Bature Gafai upheld the argument of John Usman (SAN) on behalf of Natasha and held that the deponents of the affidavits in support of the originating summons who were not delegates cannot challenge the delegate election.

The Appellate Court further held that the purported handwritten delegate list by the appellant lacks evidential value.

Relying on the certified true copies of the delegate election results and the primary election tendered by Akpoti-Uduaghan, the court upheld her election and dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.

Justice Peter Mallong of a Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday September 2, dismissed a suit challenging the nomination of  Akpoti-Uduaghan, as the 2023 Senatorial candidate of the PDP for Kogi Central.

The Judge had held that the legal action instituted by another contestant, Adamu Atta, was grossly incompetent and incurably defective and thereby robbed the court of 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 her nomination should be nullified.

He had 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, Akpoti-Uduaghan through her counsel, John Usman (SAN), objected to the hearing of the suit on the ground that the originating summons was not endorsed as required by law.

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

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