From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Supreme Court, on Friday, upheld the election of Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State after unanimously dismissing an appeal filed by the Labour Party (LP), and its candidate, Chijoke Edeoga for lacking in merit.
A five-member panel of the apex court said they found no reason to tamper with the concurrent findings of the lower courts regarding the subject matter in dispute.
Edeoga had filed the appeal to challenge the outcome of the governorship election that was held in the state on March 18. Both the Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal and the Court of Appeal in Lagos had dismissed all the allegations the appellants raised against the election victory of Governor Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Accordingly, the Supreme Court resolved all the issues that were raised in the appeal, against the LP and Edeoga. The Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal had on November 10, upheld Governor Mbah’s election, after it dismissed three issues that the LP and its candidate, Edeoga, raised against him. In a unanimous judgment, a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Tani Yusuf-Hassan held that Edeoga and his party failed to establish their allegation that Governor Mbah was not qualified to contest the gubernatorial poll.
The court noted that though the appellants alleged that there was widespread over-voting within Mbah’s strongholds, they, however, failed to tender the voters register that was used for the election, to prove the allegation. It accordingly dismissed the appeal as lacking in merit and affirmed Mbah as the valid winner of the governorship election.
Dissatisfied with the judgment of the appellate court, Edeoga took the matter before the Supreme Court, where he also lost on Friday.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared Mbah of the PDP as the winner of the gubernatorial contest after he polled a total of 160,895 votes. Mr 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 place third. Not satisfied with the results as announced by INEC, Edeoga and his party filed a petition to challenge Mbah’s victory. The Justice K.M. Akano-led Governorship tribunal had in its judgment delivered on September 9, dismissed the allegation, stressing that the PDP candidate met the minimum requirements for the election, which it said included the possessing of a school certificate or its equivalent.