The tribunal held that the petitioners failed to prove their allegations of non-qualification as the court lacks jurisdiction to entertain issues relating to membership of a party which falls under a pre-election matter.
The Ebonyi State Governorship Election Tribunal sitting in Abuja has dismissed the petition filed by the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, challenging the victory of Peter Nwifuru of the All Progressive Congress, APC.
The tribunal dismissed the petition for lacking in merit and upheld the election of Nwifuru.
The tribunal held that the petitioners failed to prove their allegations of non-qualification as the court lacks jurisdiction to entertain issues relating to membership of a party which falls under a pre-election matter.
The tribunal further held that failure of Nwifuru to vacate his seat as speaker and a House of Representative member in Ebonyi State, which he won in 2019 under the platform of the PDP before contesting the primaries could not be seen as a disqualifying factor restraining him from contesting the election.
The Independent National Election Commission (INEC) had declared Gov Nwifuru as the winner of the election which jeld on Marc 18.
Nwifuru polled a total of 199,131 votes across the 13 Local Government Areas of the state to beat his closest rival, Dr. Chukwuma Ifeanyi Odii of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who scored 80,191 votes.
The electoral umpire also went ahead to issue Nwifuru a Certificate of Return as Governor-elect as he was sworn-in as Governor on May 29, 2023.
But Odii and his party PDP and the second runners-up, Bernard Odoh, and his party, All Progressive Grand Alliance(APGA) rejected the result and challenged it at the tribunal.
Odoh in his petition is seeking Nwifuru’s disqualification on the grounds of certificate forgery and ineligibility to stand for the election.
He urged the tribunal to disqualify Mr Nwifuru who was declared winner of the said election and also to nullify the said Certificate of return issued to him.