Supreme court affirms Ododo as Kogi APC guber candidate

The supreme court has affirmed Ahmed Ododo as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi state.

In a unanimous judgment on Monday, a five-member panel of the court dismissed the appeal filed by Smart Adeyemi, former senator representing Kogi west.

The court held that Adeyemi failed to show reasons why the concurrent judgements of the federal high court and the court of appeal which dismissed his suit should be set aside.

Ododo, a former local government auditor-general in the state, scored 78, 704 votes to beat six other contestants in the APC primary.

Salami Momodu got 1,506 votes, Yahaya-Ashemogu secured 1,159 and Abubakar Audu polled 763.

Stephen Ocheni garnered 552 votes, Sanusi Ohiare had 424, and Smart Adeyemi got 311 votes.

Adeyemi subsequently approached the Abuja federal high court with a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/556/2023, seeking the invalidation of the guber primary.

In a judgment delivered on July 12, James Omotosho, the trial judge, dismissed the suit for lacking merit.

The court of appeal also dismissed Adeyemi’s appeal in August.

Still dissatisfied, the former senator further appealed to the supreme court.

In its verdict, Emmanuel Agim, who read the lead judgment, said the APC provided credible evidence to prove that the primary election that produced Ododo as the governorship flagbearer was validly conducted.

“No ground of the appeal suggests that findings of both the trial court and the lower court were perverse,” Agim said. 

He held that the appeal was incompetent, frivolous, vexatious and deserved to be dismissed, adding that Adeyemi failed to disclose any reasonable cause of action against the respondents. 

“On the whole, this appeal fails and it is accordingly dismissed. A cost of one million is hereby awarded against the 1st and 3rd respondents,” he added.