The Court of Appeal in Enugu State has upheld the ruling of an Election Petition Tribunal, which sacked House of Representatives member Simon Atigwe.
Mr. Atigwe, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), represents Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency.
Earlier Tribunal Judgement
In August, the Election Petition Tribunal in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, nullified Mr. Atigwe’s election. The tribunal, headed by Justice H. N. Kunaza, declared Dennis Agbo, Labour Party (LP) candidate, as the rightful winner of the rerun election held in February.
Mr. Atigwe then filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal in Enugu State to challenge the ruling.
Court of Appeal Ruling
Delivering judgment on Wednesday, the Court of Appeal in Enugu affirmed that Mr. Atigwe of the PDP was not duly elected in the rerun election. The three-member panel of the court upheld the tribunal’s decision and confirmed Mr. Agbo of the LP as the valid winner.
The head of the panel, Justice Joseph Eyo Ekanem, read out the judgment.
Background
Mr. Agbo was initially declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the 25 February 2023 National Assembly Election in the constituency.
However, Oby Ajih, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, challenged the outcome of the election at the Court of Appeal in Lagos State, arguing that the election was flawed because the logo of her party was not on the INEC’s EC8A form.
In November 2023, the court voided the election and ordered a rerun within 90 days.
During the rerun held on 3 February, Mr. Atigwe of the PDP was declared the winner with 23,863 votes, defeating his closest rival, Mr. Agbo, who scored 23,226 votes. Mr. Atigwe was subsequently sworn in later that month.
However, Mr. Agbo approached the tribunal, alleging that the rerun election was marred by the wrong computation of results and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022, among other issues.
