The Supreme Court, on Friday, upheld the election of Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State following a unanimous decision of a five-man panel of Justices who dismissed an appeal by the Labour Party (LP), and its candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, challenging the outcome of the March 18 governorship election in the state.
The apex court said it found no reason to dislodge the concurrent verdicts of the Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal and the Court of Appeal in Lagos, which dismissed all the allegations the appellants raised against the election victory of Governor Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Justice Mohammed Garba, who delivered the lead judgement of the Supreme Court, resolved all the issues that were raised in the appeal by the LP and Edeoga.
It will be recalled that the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal had on November 10, upheld Governor Mbah’s election, after it dismissed three issues that the LP and its candidate, Edeoga, raised against him.
In a unanimous judgement, a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Tani Yusuf-Hassan held that Edeoga and his party failed to establish their allegation that Governor Mbah was not qualified to contest the gubernatorial poll.
The court noted that though the appellants alleged that there was widespread over-voting within Mbah’s strongholds, they, however, failed to tender the voters register that was used for the election, to prove the allegation.
It was the position of the appellate court that the LP and its candidate failed to adduce sufficient reasons to warrant the setting aside of the earlier verdict of the Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which dismissed their case.
It accordingly dismissed the appeal as lacking in merit and affirmed Mbah as the valid winner of the governorship election.
Dissatisfied with the judgement of the appellate court, Edeoga took the matter before the Supreme Court, where he also lost on Friday.
It will be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared Mbah of the PDP as winner of the gubernatorial contest after he polled a total of 160,895 votes.
Mr 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 place third.
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