Supreme Court upholds Mbah’s election as Enugu governor

The five-member panel of Supreme Court led by Justice John Okoro on Friday upheld the election of Peter Mbah as the Governor of Enugu State, as the petitioner failed to substantiate his claim of electoral fraud against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Penpushing reports that in a judgement delivered unanimously dismissed two appeals filed by the Labour Party (LP) and its candidate, Jonathan Edeoga, while he (Mbah) was declared as winner of the governorship election with 160,895 votes.

The Labour Party (LP) Edeoga came second with 157,552 votes, while Frank Nweke of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) polled 17,983 votes to place third, with Mbah winning the March 18,2023 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), defeating his closet challenger, Edeoga.

Penpushing further reports that, Edeoga dissatisfied with the poll outcome sued Mbah, urging the Enugu State Governorship election petition tribunal to upturn the governor’s election, but in the lead judgement of the Supreme Court on Friday, Justice Mohammed Garba said Edeoga failed to substantiate his claim of electoral fraud against the electoral commission and Mbah.

The judge consequently, affirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which equally upheld the verdict of the tribunal, dismissing Edeoga’s petition, while a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal in Lagos had in November, dismissed three issues raised by Edeoga against Mbah.

Penpushing also reports that the panel, led by Justice Tani Yusuf-Hassan, concluded that the Labour Party (LP) and its Governorship candidate failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove that Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was not qualified to contest the election.

The judge regarding the allegation of over-voting, said in her lead judgement that voters’ registers were not presented before the lower tribunal and therefore, ruled that the appeal failed because the petitioners failed to submit the voters’ registers for the disputed areas to substantiate the over-voting allegation.

Penpushing reports that the court also determined that the witnesses presented by the Labour Party(LP) did not sufficiently prove the existence of over-voting in the governorship election and consequently, the court dismissed the case for lacking in merit and upheld the judgement of the election tribunal, which had earlier affirmed election commission declaration of  Mbah as the winner of the 18 March governorship election.

The petitioner and his party filed the petition, challenging Mbah’s victory, asking that they should be declared as winners because they polled the highest number of valid votes and also raised concerns about the alleged forgery of a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate by Mbah.

Penpushing further reports that the Enugu State Governorship election petition tribunal ruled in favour of Mbah, stating that he met the minimum requirements for the election, which include the possessing of a school certificate or its equivalent.

Meanwhile, the tribunal rejected Edeoga’s witnesses, adding that the petitioner did not present any admissible evidence to prove that Mbah’s certificate was forged.

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