Bello’s Victory at Tribunal
The election petition tribunal sitting in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, has affirmed the governorship election that returned the Kogi State governor, Yaya Bello for a second term.
Yahaya Bello was declared the winner of the November 19, 2019, Kogi state governorship election which was keenly contested.
With a total of 406,222 votes, Bello’s victory was announced by the Returning Officer of the election, Ibrahim Garba, stressing that he was able to get the majority number of votes.
His main contenders, Must Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Natasha Akpoti of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, got 189,704 and 9,482 votes respectively.
Bello’s Victory at the election was not welcomed by the PDP as the election was marred by violence and ballot box snatching.
Two of the three members of the panel that had Justice Kashim Kaigama as the lead Judge thrashed the petition filed by the PDP and that of its governorship candidate, Wada over Bello’s victory at the polls.
Meanwhile, Justice Kaigama, and justice Baraka Wali both said that the petitioners failed to prove any of the groups of their petitions.
In his reaction to the judgement, Governor Yahaya Bello in a statement signed by his press secretary, Onogwu Muhammad, said it is a confirmation of his landmark victory at the 2019 governorship election.
