The Peoples Democratic Party on Sunday rejected the ruling of the Court of Appeal which upheld the election of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State.
The main opposition party while reacting to the verdict expressed shock that the court did not pay attention to what its referred to as “hard evidence” which showed that the PDP candidate, Musa Wada scored the highest valid votes in the Governorship election held on November 16th, 2019.
Recall that the Court of Appeal ruled in the favour of Governor Yahaya Bello and the All Progressives Congress.
The reaction was contained in a statement titled: “Kogi: PDP Confident of Justice at Supreme Court …Shocked that Appeal Court Discountenanced Hard Evidence,” and released by the spokesperson of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan
PDP noted that the judgement of the Court of Appeal in favour of the All Progressives Congress does not vitiate or detract from the fact, by hard evidence, that it won the November 16, 2019, Kogi state governorship election.
According to the main opposition, the Appeal Court in its ruling did not pay attention to the evidence before it, which shows that the governorship candidate of the party scored the highest valid votes in the said election.
It observed that the judgment of the Appeal Court will be a major setback to our democratic process if left unchallenged, but expressed confidence that justice will be served on the merit of the case by the Supreme Court.
The statement partly read, “Our party holds that discounting of hard evidence of over-voting, massive thumb printing, voter intimidation, thuggery and other irregularities and malpractices used by the APC and compromised INEC officials to manipulate the results of the election would be reviewed at the Supreme Court.”
“Justice on any matter is based on the weight of evidence before a court. The failure by the Appeal Court to consider key and essential ingredients of evidence before it on their merit, as already admitted and upheld by a judgment of a preceding court, amounted to a frustration of the course of justice in the matter.”
“The PDP restates its insistence that the evidence is clear that its candidate is the genuine choice of the people in the November 16, 2019 election.”
“The people of Kogi state now look up to the Supreme Court to reverse this injustice handed over to them, especially, given the evidence laid, as affirmed by the courageous verdict of Justice Ohimai Ovbiagele at the Election Tribunal.”
PDP called on the people of Kogi State to not be moved by the verdict but remain calm and prayerful, as justice will definitely be served at the Supreme Court.
source https://www.naijanews.com/2020/07/05/kogi-pdp-rejects-appeal-court-verdict-heads-to-supreme-court/
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