{"id":11733,"date":"2024-06-05T13:30:41","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T12:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebirareporters.com\/?p=11733"},"modified":"2024-06-05T13:30:41","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T12:30:41","slug":"kogi-guber-sdp-vows-to-challenge-tribunal-judgment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebirareporters.com\/kogi-guber-sdp-vows-to-challenge-tribunal-judgment\/","title":{"rendered":"Kogi Guber: SDP Vows to Challenge Tribunal Judgment"},"content":{"rendered":"
The National Chairman of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Shehu Gabam, has vowed to challenge the outcome of the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which affirmed the election of Ahmed Usman Ododo as the duly elected governor of Kogi State.<\/p>\n
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Addressing a news conference on Tuesday in Abuja, Gabam said the tribunal judgment which was already in the public domain at the time the judgment was being delivered, was a miscarriage of justice aimed at disenfranchising the people of Kogi State.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the grounds the Tribunal predicated the dismissal of our petition is our alleged failure to demonstrate infractions which occurred on the BVAS machines which we had no access to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThirty minutes into the delivery of the judgment, it was published by Sahara Reporters. How did they get the judgment?\u201d<\/p>\n
Gabam insisted that the party was prepared to go all the way to the Supreme Court, to reclaim its mandate from the All Progressives Congress-led administration of Governor Ododo.<\/p>\n
On May 27, the tribunal which sat in Abuja, upheld Ododo\u2019s November 11, 2023 electoral victory, saying the SDP\u2019s petition was bereft of substance and accordingly dismissed it.<\/p>\n
Ruling on the matter, the three-member panel of justices, headed by Justice Ado Birnin-Kudu, held that the petitioners \u2013 the SDP, and its candidate, Murtala Ajaka \u2013 failed to prove the allegations of over-voting and non-compliance-with the Electoral Act 2022 in the petition.<\/p>\n
In a unanimous decision, the panel held that all the witness evidence filed before it, was incompetent and full of inconsistencies.<\/p>\n