The Supreme Court has upheld the election of Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu.
Justice Mohammed Garba, who delivered the lead judgment on Friday, December 22, 2023, described the statement that Mr Mbah did not possess the National Youth Service Corps certificate he tendered to the INEC as a mere allegation.
The court resolved all the issues raised in the appeal against the appellant.
The appellant, Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party, had dragged INEC and Mr Mbah before the court to challenge the decision of the Court of Appeal, which dismissed his case against the governor’s election.
In its unanimous decision, the Lagos Division of the appellate court resolved all three issues argued against the appellant, Mr Edeoga.
The three-member panel presided over by Justice Tani Hassan held that the appellant failed to prove that the respondent was not qualified to contest the governorship election.
On the allegation of overvoting, Ms Hassan, in her lead judgment, held that the voters’ register was never placed before the lower tribunal, stressing that failure to tender the voter’s register before the lower tribunal rendered the appeal inadmissible.
The court also held that the testimony of all the witnesses presented by the appellant did not prove that there was over-voting in the governorship election.
Consequently, the court dismissed the appeal for lacking merit. It affirmed the judgment of the election tribunal, which upheld the election of Mr Mbah of the PDP as governor in the March 18 election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Mr Mbah of the PDP as the winner of the March 18, 2023 election.
Source: NAN
