Court of Appeal has affirmed Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan winner of the Kogi Central Senatorial Seat.
Gatekeepers News reports that Akpoti-Uduaghan of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP defeated the sitting Senator of the district, Abubakar Sadiku Ohere of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the February 25 election.
INEC returning officer for the district, Rotimi Ajayi had announced that Sadiku-Ohere garnered 52,132 votes to beat Natasha who had 51,763 votes.
The margin of victory was 369 votes.
Natasha, who was dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, approached the tribunal with a petition seeking to nullify the victory of Sadiku-Ohere and her declaration as the winner of the election.
Before the verdict of the court of appeal, the election petition tribunal sitting in Lokoja earlier declared Akpoti-Uduaghan as the winner of the Senatorial election in September.
The tribunal chairman, Kemakolam Orjiako, while delivering the results of the three-person panel, said Ohere’s results were inflated in nine polling units in the Ajaokuta LGA.
Orjiako said that INEC omitted the results of three other polling units meant for Natasha in the same LGA.
After the necessary corrections, the court declared Natasha as the winner of the election with 54,074 votes, surpassing Ohere, who garnered 51,291 votes.
Nevertheless, Ohere had headed to the appellate court to seek redress.
However, the court of appeal in the ruling on Tuesday, dismissed the appeal filed by Ohere for lacking in merit.
The appellate court also awarded the sum of N500,000 against Ohere.
