Appeal court affirms Enugu Gov’s election

Samuel Amah-Ugbor, Enugu

The Appeal Court, Lagos Division, on Friday affirmed the election of Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP as the governor of Enugu State.

The appellate court, in its unanimous decision, resolved all three issues argued against the appellant, Edeoga Jonathan of the Labour Party.

The three-member panel presided over by Justice Tani Hassan held that the appellant failed to prove that the respondent was not qualified to contest the election.

On the allegation of over-voting, Justice Hassan, in her lead judgment, held that the voters’ register was never placed before the lower tribunal, stressing that failure to tender the voter’s register before the lower tribunal rendered the appeal inadmissible.

The court also held that the testimony of all the witnesses presented by the appellant did not prove that there was over-voting in the governorship election.

Consequently, the court dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit and affirmed the judgment of the election tribunal which upheld the election of Mbah of the PDP as governor in the March 18 election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Mbah as winner of the March 18 governorship election with 160,895 votes.

Edeoga of the LP who came second got 157,552 votes, while Frank Nweke of the All Progressives Grand Alliance polled 17, 983 votes to claim third place.

But dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, Edeoga, and his party 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 certificate.

In its judgment, the state governorship election petition tribunal affirmed Mbah as the duly elected governor of the state.

Delivering judgment, the tribunal led by Kudirat Akano, dismissed the petition filed by Edeoga, candidate of the LP.

The tribunal held that Edeoga and his party failed to prove their case.

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,” the tribunal ruled