Kemisola Oye
THE Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos State today upheld the judgment of the Enugu State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal which had earlier affirmed the election of Mr Peter Ndubuisi Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the 18 March 2023 governorship election held in the state.
The three-man panel of the appellate court, in its unanimous decision, held that the appellant failed to prove his three grounds of appeal.
The Labour Party (LP) and its governorship candidate, Edeoga Chijioke Jonathan, being dissatisfied with the tribunal judgment, which upheld the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s declaration of Mr Ubah as the winner of the election, filed three grounds of appeal.
Mr Jonathan had approached the tribunal to disqualify Mbah and declare him the winner of the election while claiming to have polled the highest valid votes cast.
The petitioners also challenged the candidacy of the governor over an alleged forgery of a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate.
In its judgment, the Enugu State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal affirmed Peter Mbah as the duly elected governor of the state.
However, delivering judgement today, the panel resolved all three issues canvassed by the appellant, (Edeoga Chijioke Jonathan of the Labour Party) in favour of respondents (Mbah).
The panel, headed by Justice Tani Yusuf Hassan, held that the appellant failed to prove that the respondent was not qualified to contest the governorship election.
Also, on the allegation of overvoting, the panel held that “Voters’ register was never placed before the lower court, emphasising that failure to tender the voters register before the lower court rendered the appeal inadmissible.
The court further held that the testimony of all the witnesses called by the appellant did not prove that there was over-voting in the governorship election.
The court, therefore, dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit and affirmed the judgment of the election petition tribunal which earlier declared Mbah of the PDP as the winner of the 18 March governorship election.
INEC had declared Mbah of the PDP the winner of the election with 160,895 votes. Edeoga of the LP came second with 157,552 votes, while Frank Nweke of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) polled 17, 983 votes to claim third place.
Election Tribunal had in its lead judgment delivered by Justice Kudirat Akano, dismissed the petition filed by Chijioke Edeoga and his party.
The court held that Mbah met the minimum requirements for the election which is a school certificate or its equivalent.
The tribunal rejected Edeoga’s witnesses, adding that the petitioners did not present any admissible evidence to prove that Mbah’s certificate was forged.
“NYSC discharge certificate is not a qualification for governorship. Assuming that the NYSC discharge certificate of the second respondent, as claimed by the petitioners, was forged, is the NYSC certificate a qualification to contest for governor in Nigeria according to the Constitution? The answer is no.” the panel held.
Eighteen-Eleven Media