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From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Enugu
Former Enugu State governor, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani has lost his petition at the National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Enugu.
He had challenged the election of Labour Party (LP) candidate, Kelvin Chukwu as the senator representing Enugu East.
The three-man panel led by Justice Nusirat I. Umar on Wednesday struck out Nnamani’s petition for being vague and lacking in merit, thereby upholding the victory of Senator Chukwu.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared and returned Chukwu as the winner of the said election polled over 69,000 votes to defeat his predecessor and former governor, Nnamani who got about 49,000 votes.
But not satisfied with the result, Nnamani had already been sacked from his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) approached the Tribunal and alleged that the election was marred by over-voting, irregularities, election malpractices and non-compliance with the electoral guidelines and prayed the court to declare him the rightful winner of the election or declare as invalid the results of the polls.
But the three-man panel in their judgment unanimously dismissed his petition describing it as being vague, lacking in merit, incompetent, generic and an academic exercise.
They also awarded a cost of N500,000 against the petitioners in favour of the three respondents, Kelvin Chukwu, LP and INEC.
