The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos has re-affirmed the election and return of Michael Onyinye Ugochinyere Ikeagwuonu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as member representing Ideato North/Ideato South Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on 26th February, declared PDP's Ugochinyere winner with 13026 votes. Labour Party's Pascal Chigozie Obi and APC's Chika Benson Abazu fell behind scoring 5696 and 2368 votes respectively.

Expressing his dissatisfaction with the outcome of the election, the APC candidate, Abazu, filed a petition before the tribunal, marked: EPT/IM/HR/10/2023, where INEC, Ugochinyere, PDP, candidate of the Labour Party, Obi Paschal Chigozie and his party, the LP; were cited as the 1st to 5th respondents

The Petitioner maintained that Ugochinyere was not qualified to participate in the House of Reps contest, and also argued that all the votes that were credited to the PDP candidate were wasted votes.

He also noted that contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act, the PDP, conducted its primary election in a venue that was outside the constituency.

In a unanimous decision in September, the three-member panel of the tribunal led by Justice Anthony Akpovi, which conducted its proceedings in Nasarawa State, held that Ugochinyere was not validly nominated by the PDP to contest the election.

The tribunal stressed that documentary and oral evidence that was laid before it established that the primary election the PDP conducted on May 25, 2022, which produced Ugochinyere as its candidate, was held at Aladinma Shopping Mall, which was outside the constituency.

Relying on the provision of section 84 (5) (c)of the Electoral Act 2022, the tribunal held that PDP’s primary election was invalid.

It held that a valid candidate could not have emerged from an invalid primary election.

The tribunal maintained that for a primary election to be valid, it must be done in compliance with section 29 (1) of the Electoral Act.

Justice Akpovi said, “Failure of the 3rd respondent (PDP) to abide by the sacrosanct provision of the Electoral Act invalidated its sponsorship of the 2nd respondent.”

He ordered a supplementary election in 55 Polling Units, and the PDP should be excluded from participating.

Aggrieved by this development, Ugochinyere & the PDP appealed to the final Court in these matters praying a reversal of the decision.

In a consolidated appeal, Suit Nos: CA/ABJ/EP/HR/IM/64/2023, CA/ABJ/EP/HR/IM/65/2023, CA/ABJ/EP/HR/IM/68/2023, the Appeal Court held that the issues surrounding the Venue of the Primary election had been litigated up to the Supreme Court and dispensed. The three-man panel led by Justice Abubakar Ali Babandi Gumel JCA, held that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to have re-opened a matter that had been foreclosed by the Apex Court.

The Court also held that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to litigate on pre-election matters, reversed the tribunal decision and therefore affirmed the election and return of Ikeagwuonu.

Yesterday, the Appeal Court sitting in Lagos re-instated the member representing Eti-Osa Federal Constituency, Labour Party's Thaddeus Atta.

The Tribunal had earlier ordered a re-run following the petitions of PDP's Bankole Wellington and APC's Ibrahim Obanikoro.

benuejosh:
Labour Party actually reduced PDP's chances of winning the elections big time. They wasted their votes.

slivertongue:
good but the opposite is happening on Plateau State

GanagiBitrus:
Looks like we should just forget about election votes & use court to determine the winners.

But seriously, the way forward is for INEC to perfect e-Voting and Realtime Transmission of Results.

Jorussia:
electronic voting is not going to stop multiple court cases after elections.What we need is an amendment to the electoral act to forbid contesting of eligibility of candidates after elections. More than 80% of cases in court is not about the conduct or outcome of the elections.

DMerciful:
LP is not in existence to serve the PDP!

fergie001: