The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal filed by the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Uche Nnaji in the last governorship election in Enugu, challenging the victory of Peter Mbah as the governor of the state.
Nnaji had argued that Mbah was not constitutionally qualified to vie for the office of the governor at the time of the election, having allegedly presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The tribunal dismissed the case and the appeal Court also upheld their decision.
Not satisfied, the APC Candidate who’s currently the minister for science and technology approached the apex court.
But in a ruling on Friday, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court held that the legal team of the APC and Nnaji filed invalid brief of argument and failed to convince the court with cogent reason why the appellants’ incompetent brief should be allowed.
In the lead judgement, Justice Tijani Abubakar held that since the appellants’ brief was found to be invalid, the invalidity also affected the appeal in respect of which the appeal was filed.
He proceeded to dismiss the brief and appeal filed by the appellants.
JOURNALIST101 recalls that Nnaji whose petition was initially dismissed by Justice K.M. Akano-led Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal on June 20, 2023, approached the appellate court to seek redress.
Among others, the APC candidate, who polled a total of 14,575 against Dr. Peter Mbah’s 160,895 votes, to come a distant fourth in the election, equally averred that Governor Mbah was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast at the election.
Also joined as respondents were the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Hon. Chijioke Edeoga, and that of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Mr. Frank Nweke Jr., whom, according to the appellant, were not qualified to contest the election, having allegedly run afoul of the asset declaration law.
He had, therefore, asked the tribunal to disqualify Mbah, Edeoga, and Nweke and either declare him the winner or order INEC to conduct a runoff election between him and other remaining candidates.
Delivering judgment on the petition marked EPT/EN/GOV/05/23, Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Akano, said the lawsuit was not filed in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act and could not be heard pursuant to paragraph 18(3) (4) of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Consequently, Nnaji had approached the Court of Appeal, praying it to send the dismissed petition back to the Tribunal for hearing and determination of the suit.
The did is done.