From CHARLES ONYEKWERE
Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu has upheld the ruling of the House of Representatives tribunal sacking the member representing Igboeze North/Udenu Federal Constituency, Simon Atigwe.
The Appeal Court, which delivered the judgement in Enugu yesterday, said Atigwe of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was not duly elected by the valid votes cast in the rerun election and declared Dennis Agbo of Labour Party, LP, as the rightful winner of the election.
It would be recalled that Atigwe was declared winner of the re-run election held on February 3.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, said the PDP candidate polled 23,863 votes to defeat Agbo who garnered 23,226 votes.
Agbo, who had earlier won the February 25, 2023 election but was sacked by the Appellate Court, proceeded to the tribunal to challenge Atigwe’s declaration.
He argued that the election was marred by wrong computation of result, substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act among others.
In their ruling on August 14, the tribunal headed by Justice H N Kunaza said the petition had merit and declared Agbo the actual winner of Igbo Eze North/ Udenu Federal Constituency.
Justice Kunaza’s panel declared invalid, null and void, the 2,000 votes added to the PDP candidate and restored the votes cast on February 25, 2023, of 14,229 for the PDP and 28,870 for the LP candidate.
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the petitioner won with 23,221 and PDP 21,863 votes and as such, the certificate of return issued to Atigwe should be withdrawn and issued to Agbo.
With this judgement, Agbo will return to the House of Representatives.
