By Ngwuoke Ngwuoke
Court of Appeal, Enugu, has affirmed the election of Dennis Nnamani Agbo of Labour Party, (LP), as duly elected candidate to represent Igboeze North/Udenu federal constituency.
The Wednesday ruling of the three-member panel, read by the presiding judge, Justice Joseph Eyo Ekanem, thus
upheld the ruling of the House of Representatives Tribunal which sacked Simon Atigwe, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate who was occupying the position.
Agbo’s journey to victory started when he ran for the position in the February 25, 2023 National Assembly election in which he was declared winner and sworn in.
However, he was removed following a re-run election that took place on February 3rd 2024.
Mrs Oby Ajih, candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election challenged the outcome of the rerun at the Court of Appeal in Lagos on the grounds that the logo of her party was omitted in INEC’s form EC8A.
The court voided the election in the constituency in November 2023 and ordered a re-run within 90 days.
PDP’s Atigwe was declared winner of the rerun held on February 3, 2024 with 23,863 votes while LP’s Agbo placed a close second with 23, 226 votes.
Agbo challenged the outcome citing wrong computation of results and substantial non-compliance to the Electoral Law 2022, among others reasons.
In an earlier ruling in August, the National Election Petition Tribunal in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, sacked the PDP federal lawmaker.
The tribunal, headed by Justice H. N. Kunaza, also declared Dennis Agbo, candidate and winner of a rerun election held in February. But Atigwe filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal in Enugu State to challenge the ruling.
Justice Kunaza’s panel declared invalid, null and void the 2000 votes added to the PDP candidate and restored the votes of 25th February 2023 of 14,229 for the PDP and 28,870 for the LP candidate, Rt Hon Dennis Agbo.
It also held that Atigwe was not duly elected by the valid votes cast as the petitioner won with 23,221 and PDP 21,863 votes and as such, the certificate of return issued to Atigwe should be withdrawn and issued to Agbo.
Counsel at both Tribunal and Court of Appeal included Ikeazor Akaraiwe, SAN for Hon. Dennis Agbo (the winner), Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN for Simon Atigwe (the removed representative), Messrs Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN, for LP and Tochukwu Maduka, SAN for PDP.
