The Appeal Court in Enugu State has upheld the ruling of the House of Representatives tribunal that sacked the member representing Igboeze North/Udenu federal constituency, Simon Atigwe.
The appellate court returned Labour Party, LP candidate, Dennis Agbo who was declared winner of the February 25th National Assembly election in 2023 and sworn in, but was later sacked for a re-run election that took place on February 3, 2024.
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP candidate, Simon Atigwe, was subsequently sworn in as the winner of the 2024. But Agbo’s petition to the second election tribunal filed against his opponent, Atigwe, was consolidated by the Appeal Court and sent Atigwe packing from the House of Representatives.
Delivering the judgement, the Appeal Court said: “Atigwe of the PDP wasn’t duly elected by the valid votes cast in the rerun election,” and declared Dennis Agbo of the Labour Party, LP, as the rightful winner of the election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had earlier announced that the PDP’s candidate polled a total of 23,863 votes to defeat the Labour Party candidate who it said scored 23,226 votes.
Agbo of the LP who had earlier won the February 25th, 2023 election but was sacked by the appellate court proceeded to the tribunal to challenge Atigwe’s declaration, arguing that the election was marred by massive irregularities, wrong computation of results and substantial non-compliance to the electoral act among others.
In their ruling, the Tribunal headed by Justice H N Kunaza said that the petition had merit and declared Dennis Nnamdi Agbo the actual winner of Igbo Eze North/ Udenu Federal constituency of Enugu State.
Justice Kunaza’s panel declared invalid, null and void the 2000 votes added to the PDP candidate and restored the votes of 25th February 2023 of 14,229 for the PDP and 28,870 for the LP candidate, Dennis Agbo.
The Tribunal also held that Simon Atigwe of the PDP, was not duly elected by the valid votes cast as the petitioner won with 23,221 and PDP 21,863 votes.
The court ordered that the certificate of return issued to Atigwe should be withdrawn and issued to LP, candidate, Dennis Nnamdi Agbo.
Confidence Okwuchi
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