The Court of Appeal in Abuja, has dismissed the appeal filed by a governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress in Kogi , Abubakar Achimugu.
He is seeking the court order nullifying the primary election of the party, which produced Usman Ododo as the APC Governorship candidate for the election slated for Nov. 11 in the state.
The court held in a unanimous judgment that the two appeals challenging the judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja lacked merit and accordingly dismissed them.
The Justice Muhammed Shuaibu, who led the three- member panel read the judgment in Sen. Smart Adeyemi’s appeal
The panel held that, the former lawmaker failed to prove the criminal allegations in his case.
The appellate court held that the burden of prove lies on the plaintiff who alleges irregularities in the conduct of the primary election of the APC for the nomination of its governorship candidate in the forthcoming governorship election in Kogi state.
“The the evidence placed before the trial court by the respondents was not controverted by the appellant in this circumstance, issue one is hereby resolved against the appellant.
“Where commission of a crime is an issue, it must be proved beyond reasonable doubt.
“Allegation of falsification of votes is a criminal act and it is required in law to be proved beyond reasonable doubt, which the appellant could not prove, consequently, issue two is resolved against the appellant.
“On the whole, the appeal is un-meritorious and it is hereby dismissed. The judgement of the lower court is hereby affirmed. Parties are to bear their respective cost”, Justice Shuaibu held.
Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja had, in a judgment delivered on July 12, held that Adeyemi did not prove his allegation that Ododo was not lawfully nominated by the APC.
Adeyemi had alleged in his suit that the primary election that purportedly produced Ododo as the APC governorship candidate did not hold and that the results were forged.
Delivering judgment in the suit marked FHC/CS/556/2023, Justice Omotosho held that Adeyemi’s allegations of results forgery were criminal and must be proved beyond reasonable doubts.
The court noted that the burden of proof was on the applicant to produce the forged results or the original copies of the results to discharge the burden.
He added that, failure to discharge the burden was fatal to the applicant’s case and further held that, there was evidence that the primary election was validly held and monitored by INEC.
Dissatisfied with the judgment which affirmed the primary election that produced Ododo as candidate of the party, Adeyemi approached the appellate court to set aside the judgment.
Adeyemi had in his suit at the trial court, sought the cancellation of the primary election on the ground that it was not validly conducted .
He therefore, prayed the court to declare as illegal, unlawful and invalid, the purported direct primary election said to have been conducted by the APC, through which Ododo emerged as a candidate for the governorship poll.
