Supreme Court dismisses APC’s case against Enugu Gov Mbah’s victory

BY SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate in the last governorship election in Enugu State, Uche Nnaji challenging the declaration of Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by the Independent National Electoral commission (INEC) as winner of the election

A 5-member panel of the apex court held, in a judgment on Friday, that the legal team of the APC and Nnaji filed invalid brief of argument and failed to convince the court with cogent reason why the appellants’ incompetent brief should be allowed.

In the lead judgment, Justice Tijani Abubakar held that since the appellants’ brief was found to be invalid, the invalidity also affect the appeal in respect of which the appeal was filed.

He proceeded to dismiss the brief and appeal filed by the appellants.

The Enugu Division of the Court of Appeal had dismissed the suit filed by the candidate Uche Nnaji who was the APC governorship candidate before his recent appointment as Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology by President Bola Tinubu.

In the appeal, Nnaji challenged the victory of Governor Peter Mbah but the three-man panel of the appellate court in their judgement delivered by Justice J.O.K Oyewole on July 18, 2023 dismissed the appeal.’

Nnaji’s petition filed before Justice K.M Akano-led Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal was earlier dismissed by the tribunal in its judgement on June 20 which prompted him to approach the appellate court to seek redress.

The APC candidate now a Minister in Tinubu’s administration, had contended that Mbah was not constitutionally qualified to vie for the office of the governor at the time of the election for allegedly presenting a alleged forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Among others, Nnaji, who polled 14,575 votes against Mbah’s 160,895 votes, to place a distant fourth in the election, equally averred that his PDP counterpart was not duly elected by the majority of lawful votes cast at the election.

However, his petition at the lower tribunal and appeals at the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court have failed to succeed.

Editor

Jude Ossai (JP) a veteran journalist is a National Diploma holder in Mass Communication from Ogwashi-Uku Polytechnic Ogwashi-Uku, Delta State. He also studied at Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Enugu and Imo State University, Owerri for his first and second degrees in Mass Communication, respectively. He writes extensively on politics, crime, corruption, climate change, healthcare, human rights, social justice, among others.