The
Independent National Electoral Commission has appealed the judgment of a
Federal High Court in Abuja reversing the commission’s disqualification of the
Social Democratic Party candidate, Natasha Akpoti, in the November 16
governorship election in Kogi State.
The
Federal High Court presided by Justice Folashade Ogunbanjo-Giwa, had on
November 7, 2019, ordered INEC to restore Akpoti as candidate of the SDP in the
governorship election.
The
court held that INEC had no power to disqualify any candidate for an election
as contained in sections 31(1) and 83 of the Electoral Act.
But
in an appeal petition filed by the commission at the appellate court, INEac
said the Federal High Court erred in law and thereby occasioned a miscarriage
of justice.
The
respondents in the appeal were Natasha Akpoti, Adams Khalid, and the SDP.
The
INEC added that without proper evaluation of the evidence of appellant, the
court proceeded to grant the reliefs sought by the respondents.
In
the eight-ground petition, INEC stated among others that the Federal High Court
failed to put into consideration the fact that SDP had no validly nominated
deputy governorship candidate at the close of the period for nomination on
September 9.
The
petition further stated that the invalidity of the deputy governorship
candidate (Muhammed Bashir Yakubu) invalidated SDP’s nomination of Akpoti as
its governorship candidate.
But
reacting to the appeal, the SDP candidate alleged that INEC was biased by going
ahead to conduct the election when there were issues.
She
said, “INEC’s decision to appeal against the judgment of the Federal High Court
is simply to silence me at the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.
"They
do not want anything Natasha in the courts with regards to the Kogi
governorship election because they know that I will fight vigorously to the
end.
"I
have sent in a petition to the tribunal asking for the cancellation of the
entire election.
“Questions
arising from INEC’s decision to appeal will include: what happens to the
election? I recorded about 10, 000 votes, so what happens to these 10, 000
voices? Will there be another election? We would have 10,000 who have been
deceived into voting Natasha?
“The
judgment came nine days before the election, why did they not appeal against it
and they would have gone ahead without me being on the ballot.
"They
also had the option of postponing the election and allow the courts to deal
with this. Unfortunately, they did not do this. Coincidentally, SDP was not on
any of the result sheets.”
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