The election of the Labour Party (LP) candidate for the House of Representatives, Hon. Dennis Nnamdi Agbo to represent Igboeze North/Udenu federal constituency was on Wednesday affirmed by the Court of Appeal, Enugu division.
The Appeal Court in its verdict upheld the ruling of the House of Representatives tribunal which sacked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate and member representing Igboeze North/Udenu federal constituency, Hon. Simon Atigwe.
The judgment of the court’s three-member panel was read by the presiding judge, Hon. Justice Joseph Eyo Ekanem.
The now victorious Hon Agbo was declared winner in the February 25th 2023 National Assembly election and sworn in but got removed after a re-run election that took place on February 3rd 2024.
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 State.
Mrs 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 election in the constituency within 90 days.
In the re-run held on 3 February this year, Atigwe of the PDP was declared winner of the exercise when INEC said the PDP candidate polled 23,863 votes to defeat his closest rival, Agbo of the Labour Party, who scored 23, 226 votes.
Atigwe was subsequently sworn in later the same month but Agbo proceeded to the tribunal to challenge his declaration. But, Agbo argued that the rerun election was marred by the wrong computation of results and substantial non-compliance to the Electoral Law 2022, among others.
Counsel at both Tribunal and Court of Appeal included Ikeazor Akaraiwe, SAN for Hon. Dennis Agbo (the winner) and Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN for Simon Atigwe (the removed representative); while Messrs Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN, and Tochukwu Maduka, SAN appeared for Labour Party and PDP respectively.
In the earlier ruling in August, the National Election Petition Tribunal in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, sacked the PDP federal lawmaker.
The tribunal, headed by Justice H. N. Kunaza, also declared Dennis Agbo, candidate and winner of a rerun election held in February. But Atigwe filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal in Enugu State to challenge the ruling.
Justice Kunaza’s panel declared invalid, null and void the 2000 votes added to the PDP candidate and restored the votes of 25th February 2023 of 14,229 for the PDP and 28,870 for the LP candidate, Rt Hon Dennis Agbo.
It also held that Atigwe was not duly elected by the valid votes cast as the petitioner won with 23,221 and PDP 21,863 votes and as such, the certificate of return issued to Atigwe should be withdrawn and issued to Hon Agbo.
