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By Iheanyi Chukwudi
Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the March 18 governorship election in Enugu State, Chief Uche Nnaji, on Tuesday lost again his bid to be declared the governor of the state, as the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu dismissed his appeal.
Nnaji had gone to the Court of Appeal to seek redress after his petition against Gov. Peter Mbah and two other candidates was thrown out by the Justice K.M Akano-led Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal on June 20, but the appellate court upheld the decision of the lower court and dismissed his appeal for lack off merit.
The decision of the three-man panel of the appellate court was delivered by Justice J.O.K Oyewole.
The APC candidate had contended in his petition that Mbah was not constitutionally qualified to vie for the office of the governor at the time of the election, having allegedly presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Nnaji who polled a total of 14,575 against Mbah’s 160,895 votes, to place a distant fourth in the election, equally averred that Governor Mbah was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast at the election.
Joined as respondents were the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Hon. Chijioke Edeoga, and that of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Mr. Frank Nweke Jr., whom, according to the appellant, were not qualifed to contest the election, having allegedly ran foul of the asset declaration law.
He had, therefore, asked the Tribunal to disqualify Mbah, Edeoga, and Nweke and either declare him the winner or order INEC to conduct a runoff election between him and other remaining candidates.
But, delivering the judgment of Tribunal on the petition marked EPT/EN/GOV/05/23, the Chairman, Justice Akano, said the lawsuit was not filed in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act and could not be heard pursuant to paragraph 18(3) (4) of the First Schedule of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Consequently, Nnaji approached the Court of Appeal, praying it to send the dismissed petition back to the Tribunal for hearing and determination of the suit.
But at the resumed hearing of the appeal marked CA/E/E/EP/GOV/EN/01/2023 on Tuesday, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Tribunal and dismissed the suit accordingly.
The appellate court equally awarded the sum of N250,000 each against Chief Uche Nnaji and the APC.
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