Kogi gov’ship: Court reserves judgment in Adeyemi’s appeal

The Court of Appeal has reserved judgment in the appeal by a former senator representing Kogi West District, Smart Adeyemi challenging the result of the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary in the state.

Adeyemi had filed the suit with numbers: FHC/ABJ/CS/556/2023 asking the Federal High Court to declare APC’s primary that produced Usman Ododo as illegal, unlawful, and invalid for the November governorship election.

He had challenged the judgment delivered by Justice James Omotosho, which on July 12 held that his suit lacks merit by submitting that the judge erred in law by the claim that he had made a criminal allegation in the suit when he only asserted that the primary did not hold in the state.

He maintained that the primary did not hold as provided in the law.

A three-member panel of justices led by Justice Muhammed Lawal Shuaibu on Wednesday ruled that the date for judgment on the appeal will be communicated to the parties.

This was after counsel to the APC candidate, Ododo and Adeyemi adopted their processes before the appellate court.

Justice Omotosho had noted that the suit made an allegation of forgery of results of the primary, which was criminal in nature and ought to be proved beyond reasonable doubt, adding that failure to discharge the burden of proof by producing the forged results or the original, “is fatal to the case of the applicant”.