House of Representatives tribunal has sacked the member representing Igboeze North/Udenu Federal Constituency, Simon Atigwe, and declared the candidate of Labour Party, LP, Dennis Agbo, as the actual winner of Igbo Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency rerun election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared Atigwe of the PDP winner of the re-run election held on February 3.
INEC announced that the PDP candidate polled 23,863 votes to defeat Agbo who secured 23,226 votes.
Agbo, who had earlier won the February 25 election but was sacked by the Appellate Court, proceeded to the tribunal to challenge Atigwe’s declaration.
His lawyers argued that the rerun election was marred by wrong computation of results and substantial non-compliance to the electoral act among others.
Ruling on the petition yesterday, the tribunal headed by Justice H.N Kunaza said the petition had merit and declared Agbo the actual winner of the poll.
The panel declared invalid, null and void the 2000 votes added to the PDP candidate and restored the 14,229 votes of February 25, 2023, for the PDP and 28,870 for the LP candidate 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the petitioner won with 23,221 and PDP 21,863 votes, and as such, the certificate of return issued to Atigwe should be withdrawn and issued to Agbo.
