The Supreme Court will today deliver its verdict in an appeal filed by the former Kogi State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Alhaji Jibrin Isah Echocho, seeking to nullify the election of the state governor Idris Wada.
Justice Abdul Kafarati, of a federal high court in Abuja, had earlier dismissed Echocho?s suit for lack of jurisdiction on August 29, 2012.
Not satisfied with the high court judgement, he filed an appeal at the Abuja division of the Court of Appeal, which was also dismissed by the court on January 31, 2013.
In the judgements, the courts ruled that the grievance for which Echocho sought adjudication was an election matter which should have been taken before an election tribunal by virtue of 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act 2010.
In his appeal to the Supreme Court, Echocho, through his lawyer, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), rejected the judgments of the two lower courts and argued that the case was an invitation for the interpretation of some provisions of the constitution.
Echocho had prayed the court to, among other things, grant him an order setting aside the election by INEC to the office of the governor of Kogi State on December 3, 2011, which purportedly produced Idris Wada as governor of Kogi State.
He is also seeking an order of court directing INEC, pursuant to the Supreme Court judgment of January 27, 2012, to arrange and conduct a fresh election to the office of the governor of Kogi State.
