Governor Yahaya Bello finally wins at Supreme Court

Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State on Monday finally won the legal tussle of the November 2019 governorship election in the State.

The Supreme Court on Monday declared Bello winner of the election which was challenged by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Musa Wada.

A seven-man panel of the Supreme Court presided by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Tanko Mohammed, fixed Monday for judgement on the appeal brought before it by Wada.

Governor Bello had narrowly won the case at the Tribunal in a majority split judgment of two-one members of the tribunal. The Court of Appeal had dismissed the suit on July 4th, 2020; awarded N100,000 cost each against Wada and the PDP in favour of Governor Bello, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and INEC.

The five-man panel of the Court of Appeal, however, unanimously upheld the victory of Bello, before the suit proceeded to the Supreme Court.

INEC had declared Bello winner of the November 18, 2019, governorship election in Kogi State, declaring the Kogi governor to have polled 406,222 votes to defeat Wada who had 189,704 votes; then, Akpoti who had 9,482 votes.