The Court of Appeal, Abuja, has upheld the victory of Natasha Akpoti Uduagan of the Peoples Democracy Party (PDP) on Tuesday as the duly elected candidate for the Kogi Central Senatorial Election in February 2023. The appellate court affirmed the judgment of the Kogi State National/State Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal, which earlier pronounced Natasha of PDP as the rightful winner against Abubakar Sadiku-Ohere of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who was earlier declared winner of the exercise by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The appeal of Abubakar Ohere of the All Progressive Congress was subsequently dismissed for lack of merit. Ohere, being dissatisfied with the verdict of the Tribunal, had approached the Appeal Court for respite.
Earlier, Akpoti had asked the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu to review the outcome of the senatorial election in Kogi Central. Akpoti in the letter dated March 1, 2023, demanded a review of the declaration and return of the candidate of the Ohore, as the winner of the February 25 senatorial election.
Akpoti in the letter written by her lawyer, Johnson Usman, argued that “The candidate of APC was wrongly returned with 52,132 votes and declared the winner of the election in the senatorial district while our client was wrongly credited with 51,763 votes”.
According to the letter, the mistake was followed by a careful and meticulous review of the election results from the duplicate of the result sheets, which revealed that votes were manipulated and adjusted in favor of the APC’s candidate.
She claimed that the alleged manipulation of results occurred in three polling units in Ganaja Township Ward, Ajaokuta Local Government Area of the state.
Reacting to the Appeal Court verdict, Akpoti-Uduagan, posted “We won the Appeal. Joy amidst tears. Thank you Kogi Central. This is us together ” on her official Facebook page.
