THE Ebonyi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has upheld the victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s Governor Francis Nwifuru at the 2023 Governorship polls.
The Tribunal sitting in Abuja delivered its verdict on Wednesday.
The 3-man panel chaired by Justice Lekan Ogunmoye, dismissed the petition of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and its Candidate, Benard Odoh, for lacking merit.
The panel submitted that the petitioners could not prove that the 2nd respondent (Nwifuru) was unqualified to contest the Governorship polls at the time of the election.
The tribunal also submitted that there was sufficient proof to the fact that Governor Nwifuru resigned his membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
On the issue of membership of a political party, the Tribunal held that it did not have the jurisdiction to hear the matter as it is a pre-eection matter.
Recall that the petitioners challenged the announcement made by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declaring Francis Nwifuru of the APC as winner.
The petitioners argued that Nwifuru was Speaker of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly on the platform of PDP rather than the APC under which INEC declared him as Governor.
This, the petitioners argued, made him unqualified to contest.
The petitioners argued that the act was in clear contravention of the Electoral Act 2022 and the 1999 Constitution as amended.
In their defence, Counsel to Nwifuru, Onyechi Ikpeazu, argued that the 2nd Respondent, while in his capacity as Speaker of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, resigned his membership of the PDP before contesting the election on the platform of the APC which he joined.
The Tribunal agreed with the 2nd Respondent, Nwifuru, and ruled in his favour.
