The Supreme would on Tuesday will deliver judgement on who is the Peoples Democratic Party flagbearer in the last November 16, Kogi Governoship Election.
Abubakar Ibrahim, main Challenger to the Peoples Democratic Party Ticket had approached the Lokoja High Court after exhausting the internal party mechanism to redress the fallout of the September 3, party primaries.
Recalled that the party primaries held at the Confluence Stadium Lokoja was characterized by gunmen disrupting the process at the commencement of the sorting out of the ballots.
The process to conclude the process at a private residence saw the eventual winner, Engr Musa Wada alledgedly bringing in six hundred ballot papers according to the main Challenger, an action he frowned at.
You could Recalled that the Lokoja High Court had in February faulted the Party’s Governorship Primaries held on 3rd September, insisting that following the violence that disrupted the Election, the process could not have produced a clear winner, consequently he nullified the primary election insisting that the party has no governorship candidate for the November 16 Election.
Not satisfied with the outcome, Engr. Musa Wada headed for an appeal against the judgement of the Lokoja High Court insisting that he was the candidate of the PDP, while Abubakar Ibrahim cross appealed the Judgement of the High Court, insisting that the judgement fell short of his prayers.
Both parties urged the court to set aside the ruling of the Lokoja High Court, describing the ruling as an adventure, as the judgement did not meet their prayers and expectations.
Otaru Rowland SAN, Counsel to Abubakar Ibrahim told the Appeal Court that the ruling of the Lokoja High Court, over ran the runway, insisting that the ruling granted prayers that were never pleaded for by the petitioner, while the ruling glossed over the issues of 241 missing votes and another 600 votes allegedly smuggled in by Engr. Musa Wada.
But in his submission, J.S. Okutepa, SAN, counsel to Engr. Musa Wada, also described the ruling by the Lokoja High Court as a surprise, said the ruling failed to meet the expectations of the winner, insisting that the September 3rd PDP primaries held at the Confluence Stadium Lokoja, was free, fair and credible, described the allegations as raised by the petitioner as characteristic of the average Nigerian politician to cry foul after losing in an election.
But the panel of Justices, drawn from Edo, Kwara and Benue States having listened to all the parties, including INEC and the PDP, accepted the fact that there was a primary held by the PDP on September 3, with the Lokoja High Court having the jurisdiction to entertain the matter, but the judgement was however silent on who was the candidate of the party.
Theanalyst gathered that the Supreme Court is expected to on Tuesday determine the issues of rightful candidate in its judgement.
Recall that the November 16 Governoship Election in the state was won by Alh. Yahaya Bello and he has even gone ahead to win at the Governoship Election Tribunal in Abuja few weeks ago by a split judgement.
