Kogi West: Tribunal upholds Senator Smart Adeyemi’s election

The Kogi state National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal on Wednesday upheld the election of Senator Smart Adeyemi for Kogi West Senatorial District.

In a unanimous judgment, a 3-member panel headed by Justice Kashim Kaigama dismissed the petition of former Senator Dino Melaye for lacking in merit.

Senator Melaye had challenged the emergence of Senator Adeyemi after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Adeyemi as winner of the Kogi West Senatorial re-run election.

Not satisfied with the result, Melaye had approached the election tribunal to challenge the results of the election.

Melaye had asked the tribunal to nullify the election of Adeyemi and declare him winner of the poll claiming he scored the highest number of valid votes.

Meanwhile, Melaye in the petition claimed that the November 16 senatorial re-run election was marred by violence, over-voting, manipulation of figures and other irregularities and called for total cancellation of the affected areas and thereby declare him the winner of the election.

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But, delivering judgment in the petition Wednesday, the panel in a unanimous decision held that the petitioners failed to prove the allegations beyond reasonable doubt.

According to the panel, the evidence of witnesses called by the petitioners were contradictory and as such unreliable.

The panel further held that claims of over voting and other alleged electoral malpractices were not substantiated both from documents presented and testimonies of witnesses.

The panel accordingly dismissed the petition for lacking in merit.