The verdict of Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which yesterday in Abuja dismissed the petition by the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Engr. Musa Wada, and instead declared Gov. Yahaya Bello as the winner of the November 16 governorship election, will be appealed.

Delivering judgment, today, in Abuja, the Tribunal said the petition of PDP and its candidate lacked merit, pointing out that the petitioners could not prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Justice Kashim G. Kaigama, on behalf of the three-man panel of Justices, consequently dismissed the petition by Wada and PDP.

But in a swift reaction, PDP and its flag-bearer, Wada, have said they would appeal the judgment, describing it as a miscarriage of justice.

Spokesman to Wada, Austin Okai, lamented that the Tribunal went on an adventure, and looked the other way without looking at the issues raised by the petitioners. He assured that the judgment would be tested at the Appeal Court.

Wada and PDP had in a petition marked EPT/KG/GOV/06/2019, challenged Governor Yahaya Bello’s victory in the November governorship election.

The petitioners alleged that the gubernatorial election was marred by violence, over-voting and manipulation of figures, and prayed the Tribunal to declare Wada and his party winner of the election, having scored the highest number of valid votes.

In the election, Wada scored 189,704 votes to emerge first runner-up, while Yahaya Bello got 406,222, defeating other contestants by an unprecedented wide margin of 216,518 votes.

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