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Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has expressed confidence that his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), will reclaim victory from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)'s Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who was recently declared winner of the Kogi Central senatorial election by the tribunal.
Bello said this when reacting to the judgement delivered by a Kogi Election Petitions Tribunal on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, pronouncing the PDP candidate as the actual winner of the February 25 poll ahead of APC's Senator Abubakar Ohere.
In its unanimous judgment, the Chairman of the three-man judicial panel, Justice K. A. Orjiako, nullified the declaration of Ohere as the winner of the contest on grounds that the APC candidate's votes were inflated in nine polling units of Ajaokuta Local Government Area.
The judges said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deliberately reduced Natasha's votes in the areas, adding that results from three other polling units were also intentionally omitted for her in the same local government.
But, reacting to the ruling, Bello, while speaking to State House Correspondents in Abuja on Thursday, September 7, 2023, said the presidential tribunal ruling was a pointer that his party would overturn Natasha's victory at the Supreme Court.
“I want to assure you that even judging from yesterday’s pronouncement at the appeal court, we’re going to have our three-over-three senate in Kogi State, I can assure you,” the governor stated.
Recall that the Presidential Election Tribunal Court sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja had on Wednesday dismissed all the petitions filed by the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), the PDP and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Labour Party against the victory of President Bola Tinubu.