THE Court of Appeal in Enugu State has upheld the sack of the House of Representatives member representing Igboeze North/Udenu federal constituency, Simon Atigwe, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The court declared Dennis Agbo of the Labour Party (LP) as the winner of a rerun held in February.
The court affirmed the ruling of the House of Representatives tribunal that sacked Atigwe.
In August, the election tribunal, headed by H. N. Kunaza, sacked Atigwe and declared Agbo as the winner.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, Atigwe filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal in Enugu State to challenge the judgment.
In its ruling on Wednesday, October 9, the three-member panel of the appellate court, in a judgement read by Joseph Eyo Ekanem, affirmed Agbo’s victory at the poll.
Recall that Agbo was declared winner of the February 25, 2023, National Assembly Election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
However, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the election, Oby Ajih, challenged the outcome of the election at the Court of Appeal in Lagos.
Ajih argued that the election did not follow the right process as the logo of her party was not on the INEC’s EC8A form for the exercise.
In November 2023, the court voided the election and ordered a re-run in the constituency within 90 days.
In the re-run held on February 3, 2024, Atigwe was declared the winner.
According to INEC, Atigwe polled 23,863 votes, while Agbo garnered 23,226 votes in the rerun.
Atigwe was subsequently sworn in but not satisfied with the court ruling, Agbo headed to the tribunal to challenge Atigwe’s victory.
Agbo claimed that the rerun was tainted by significant non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022, and incorrect results computation, among others.
A reporter with the ICIR
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