The State and National Assembly Appeal Court sitting in Lagos has affirmed the election of Peter Ndubuisi Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the governor of Enugu State.
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Governor Mbah has hailed the judgement of the Court of Appeal, Lagos, which upheld his victory in the March 18, 2023 governorship election in the state, saying it was consistent with the mandate freely given to him by the people of Enugu State.
Mbah also described the verdict as victory for the people and transformation of the state in line with his manifesto, assuring that he would never fail the people.
He further said the judgement had put paid to falsehoods peddled to malign the people’s government.
The appellate court yesterday in its unanimous decision resolved all the three issues canvassed against the appellant, Chijioke Jonathan Edeoga of the Labour Party (LP).
The three-member panel presided over by Justice Tani Yusuf Hassan 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 in her lead judgement held that “Voters’ Register was never placed before the lower tribunal, stressing that failure to tender the Voters Register rendered the appeal inadmissible.
The court held that the testimony of all the witnesses called by the appellant failed to prove that there was over-voting in the governorship election.
Consequently, the court dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit and affirmed the judgement of the election tribunal, which declared Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of March 18 governorship election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Mbah of the PDP the winner of the March 18 governorship election with 160,895 votes.
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 claim third place.
Dissatisfied, 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 (NYSC) certificate.
In its judgement, the Enugu State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal affirmed Peter Mbah as the duly elected governor of the state.
The tribunal in its judgement delivered by Kudirat Akano, dismissed the petition filed by Chijioke Edeoga, candidate of the Labour Party, and held that Edeoga and his party failed to prove their case.
The court held that Mbah met the minimum requirements for the election which is a school certificate or its equivalent.
The tribunal also rejected Edeoga’s witnesses, adding that the petitioners did not present any admissible evidence to prove that Mbah’s certificate was forged.
“NYSC discharge certificate is not a qualification for governorship,” the tribunal ruled.
“Assuming that the NYSC discharge certificate of the second respondent as claimed by the petitioners was forged, is the NYSC certificate a qualification to contest for governor in Nigeria according to the constitution? The answer is no.”
Recall that Justice Inyang Ekwo, of the Federal High Court, Abuja, has also affirmed the authenticity of the governor’s NYSC certificate, and awarded a fine against the corps.
The court held that the Director General of the NYSC and the corps, who were defendants in the suit, were guilty of misrepresentation of material facts.
The judge held that the certificate presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by Mr. Mbah was authentic and validly issued by the NYSC.
The court stated that further held that evidence before the court showed that the governor, though was mobilised for service in 2001, he only completed his service in 2003.
According to the court, Mbah, midway into his service, sought and obtained permission from NYSC to attend the Nigeria Law School. The judge said he was reinstated into the NYSC in 2003.
Besides, the judge said that the evidence that Mbah served in the law firm of one Udeh was not challenged by the NYSC.
The judge berated the corps for not charging the governor for forgery if they actually believed that they didn’t issue the said NYSC certificate to him.
He concluded that the NYSC was mischievous and acted in bad faith by denying Mbah’s NYSC certificate.
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