14th November, 2019
Natasha Akpoti, candidate of the Social Democratic Party in Kogi election, who has been in a bruising war with Governor Yahaya Bello, is seeking her pound of flesh in the 11th hour.
She wants a Federal High Court in Abuja to ban Bello from participating in the election on account of Bello registering twice as a voter.
Natasha in the suit wants the court to determine whether Governor Yahaya Bello, is fit to contest for the Nov. 16 governorship election in the state,
The case will come up tomorrow on the eve of the election.
The originating summon will be mentioned at Court 5 before Justice Inyang Ekwo.
While the SDP candidate is the plaintiff, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are 1st and 2nd defendants respectively.
The suit, dated Oct. 10 and marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1221/2019, filed by Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, on Akpoti’s behalf, sought the court’s determination on the eligibility of Governor Bello in the Saturday election, having allegedly involved in double registration as a voter.
Akpoti said “that by his wilful act of making double registration as a voter, Yahaya Bello, candidate of the 1st defendant is not a fit and proper person to be allowed by the 2nd defendant to vote or be voted for in the forthcoming Kogi state governorship election, having committed act of electoral fraud.
“That Mr. Yahaya Bella. the candidate of the 1st Defendant. was initially registered as a voter sometime in 2011 in Abuja, by the 2nd defendant.
“That Bello. the candidate of the 1st defendant again fraudulently procured from the 2nd defendant. a second registration as a voter on 23rd May,. 2017, at Government House. Lokoja, while his 2011 first registration as a voter in Abuja was still live, extant and subsisting.
“That the said Yahaya Bello, the candidate of the 1st defendant carried out the double registration with the 2nd defendant so as to scuttle due electoral process.
“That such a person is not a fit and proper person to vote for in any election, let alone for the high office of the governor of a state.”
Justice Ekwo had, on Tuesday, delivered judgment, disqualifying the APC Deputy Governorship Candidate in Bayelsa, Sen. Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, over false information given in his CF0001 Form submitted to INEC for the Saturday’s poll.
In recent weeks, Yahaya Bello and Natasha have been in each other’s cross hairs, with Natasha claiming that Yahaya Bello’s thugs razed her party’s secretariat in Lokoja and also that Bello sent thugs to manhandle her at the venue of stakeholders meeting, attended by police IG, Muhammed Adamu and INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu.