The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the election of Francis Nwifuru of the All progressive Congress, APC, as the winner of Ebonyi State 2023 governorship poll.
Justice Tijjani Abubakar who delivered the judgment, dismissed the appeal by the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Chukwuma Odii.
Justice Abubakar dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.
Recall that the Court of Appeal in Lagos had earlier affirmed the election of Nwifuru as the duly elected governor of Ebonyi State.
The three-member panel led by Justice Jummai Sankey in a unanimous decision dismissed the appeal filed by Odii of the PDP.
The panel also resolved all five issues raised against the appellant and dismissed the appeal for lacking merit.
Justice Sankey held that the PDP and its candidates lacked the legal right to meddle in the internal affairs of the APC as it relates to the nomination of candidates.
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Credible News reports that the Ebonyi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja had also upheld the election of Nwifuru as governor.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared Nwifuru as the winner of the March 18 governorship election in the State after polling 199,131 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Odii, who garnered 80,191 votes, while Odoh, of the APGA came third with 52,189 votes.
However, Odoh and his party challenged the declaration of Nwifuru as the elected governor of the state and asked the tribunal to nullify his election on the grounds of alleged certificate forgery and “ineligibility” to stand for the election.
The APGA candidate, a geophysics professor, contended that Nwifuru, at the time of the election was still a member of the PDP and therefore ineligible to be sponsored for the election by the APC.
Odoh further argued that Mr Nwifuru was not qualified to stand for the election because he allegedly submitted a fake certificate to INEC.
He urged the tribunal to order for a second election between the other two candidates who scored the highest number of votes at the previous election and exclude the governor from taking part in it.
However, the tribunal, on September 27, 2023, dismissed all the petitions as lacking in merit.
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