Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the federal high court, sitting in Abuja has ruled that the court does not possess the required jurisdiction to listen to the cases involving the Kogi governorship election.
The Kogi governorship election between Idris Wada and Audu Abubakar was declared inconclusive on November 22 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The court on Friday, December 4, said that only the Election Petition Tribunal has the jurisdiction to listen to such cases.
Justice Kolawole gave INEC the go-ahead to conduct the supplementary election in the state, which is scheduled for Saturday, December 5.
“Only the election petition can entertain this case. The court does not have the affirmation to make definitive pronouncements,” Kolawole said.
Justice Kolawole had on Tuesday, merged four separate suits challenging the legality of the scheduled supplementary election.
On Thursday, he adjourned for judgement after all the parties adopted their final written addresses on legal logjam that arose from the death of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Prince Abubakar Audu.
The first suit was filed by the Deputy Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Party (APC), James Abiodun Faleke, who faulted the decision by INEC to declare the election inconclusive; asked the court to among others compel INEC to declare his joint ticket with the late Abubakar Audu, winner of the election and to restrain it (INEC) from proceeding with its planned supplementary election.
The second suit is by Governor Idris Wada and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his party where they want the court to compel INEC to declare Wada winner of the election, on the grounds that he is the only surviving candidate in the election who scored the second highest votes after the late Audu, the APC candidate.
The third suit was filed by Emanuel Daiko, who claimed to have contested the election as a candidate of the People for Democratic Change (PDC) and wants the court to among others hold the supplementary election is illegal, prevent APC from substituting its deceased candidate and to prevent APC from participating in the election on the grounds that it no longer has a candidate.
The fourth was filed by Raphael Igbokwe (a PDP member of the House of Representatives from Imo State) and Stephen Wada Omaye wants the court to annul the election and conduct a fresh one. It has INEC and APC as defendants.
The fifth suit was filed by a Johnson Jacob Usman (who claimed to be an indigene of the state, a registered voter and a lawyer). He seeks among others, to compel INEC to suspend all actions in relation to the election pending the determination of the suit and a declaration that the election ought to be cancelled. It has the AGF and INEC as defendants.
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