Appeal Court Affirms Peter Mbah’s Election As Enugu Governor

Appeal Court, Lagos Division has affirmed the election of Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP as the governor of Enugu State, Southeast Nigeria.

Gatekeepers News reports that the three-member panel presided over by Justice Tani Hassan, in its unanimous decision, resolved all three issues argued against the appellant, Jonathan Edeoga of the Labour Party.

The panel held that the appellant failed to prove that the respondent was not qualified to contest the governorship election.

On the allegation of over voting, Justice Hassan, while reading the lead judgement, 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 appellate court added that the testimony of all the witnesses presented by the appellant did not prove that there was over-voting in the governorship election.

The court, thereafter dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit and affirmed the judgement 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 the winner of the March 18 governorship election in Enugu 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.

Dissatisfied with result, 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.

However, the state governorship election petition tribunal in its judgement affirmed Mbah as the duly elected governor of the state.

The tribunal led by Kudirat Akano, dismissed the petition filed by Edeoga and held that the candidate of the LP and his party failed to prove their case.

The court further held that Mbah met the minimum requirements for the election which is a school certificate or its equivalent.