Kogi Gov Defends Victory at Tribunal

The governor of Kogi State, Usman Ododo, on Wednesday, tendered several electoral documents to defend his victory at the state governorship election petition tribunal sitting in Abuja.

The documents tendered by his lawyer, Paul Daudu marked the commencement of his defence in the petition challenging his victory at the November 11 election.

Aggrieved by the outcome of the election, the Social Democratic Party and its candidate, Murtala Ajaka approached the tribunal to nullify the election of Ododo.

The SDP and Ajaka who initially penciled down 400 witnesses closed their case after calling 25 on April 6.

Equally, the Independent National Electoral Commission opened and closed its case on April 16.

The INEC did not call any witnesses but tendered a litany of documents.

The tribunal headed by Justice Ado Birnin-Kudo, then declared the commission’s case closed, and adjourned until April 17 for Ododo to open his defence.

At the proceedings on Wednesday, Daudu tendered documents in support of his victory in the seven local governments where the results were disputed.

The lawyer said he would commence this with the tendering of the certified true copies of the documents which had also been served on the petitioners.

“It is only fair for them (petitioners) to peruse these documents to enable us to take off,” Daudu said.

He, therefore, sought a stand down of the hearing for about 30 minutes to allow the petitioners to go through the documents.

The tribunal granted his prayer and the matter was stood down.

Pius Akubo, SAN, who appeared for the petitioners, did not oppose the application.

However, while the documents were inspected after resuming from the break, the tribunal, through its secretary, announced the adjournment of the matter until April 18.