Tribunal Sets June 7 For Ruling On Mbah’s Disqualification Suit

The Enugu State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal on Friday slated June 7 for ruling on an application seeking to remove Peter Mbah as the Governor of Enugu State.

The application filed by the Governorship Candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Chief Chris Agu is challenging the qualification of Mbah to contest the March 18 governorship election.

He claimed that Mbah presented a forged National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) prior to the governorship election. Petitioner’s counsel, Alex Amujiogu who spoke on the outcome of the hearing said that his client had asked the court to disqualify Mbah because he had filed false information to INEC and that there was an act of forgery on the candidate’s certificate.

He said: “These are the grounds on which we are seeking that he be disqualified. Another is the issue of non-compliance and corrupt practices.

“The issue is that the respondents saw the viability of the case we filed against them so in order to prevent the tribunal from hearing merit of the petition against their candidate, they now want the tribunal not to entertain it by asking that it be struck out. But we are saying no that the tribunal should hear it on its merit.”

Counsel to the PDP and Mbah, Alex Izinyon argued that the tribunal should not entertain the application on the grounds that there is a judgment on the issue of certificate forgery against Peter Mbah in a court in Abuja.

Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Kudirat Akano after listening to the submissions of the parties adjourned the matter to June 7 for ruling.

The PRP governorship candidate, Chris Agu, had gone to court seeking to be declared the winner of the election on the grounds that he won the highest number of valid votes cast during the March 18 governorship election.