The Ebonyi State Election Tribunal sitting in Abuja has reserved judgement in the petition filed by the the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate in the March 18 governorship election, Ifeanyi Odii challenging the victory of Governor Francis Nwifuru.
The three-member panel headed by Justice A. L. Ogunmoye reserved judgement after the petitioners and the 1st to 3rd respondents’ counsel adopted their final written addresses, objections to documents and their reply on point of law.
The PDP and Odii are asking the Tribunal to declare that Nwifuru who contested and won on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, is not qualified as he remains a member of the PDP and the party never put him forward as candidate for any election in the 2023 polls.
Counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Baba Fika was the first counsel to adopt a final written address and urged the court to dismiss the petition with substantial cost.
Counsel representing Nwifuru, Onyeachi Ikpeazu SAN, adopted his objections to the documents tendered by the petitioner urging the court to strike out the petition.
He argued that the issue of Nwifuru’s qualification raised by the petitioner had already been dealt with as he secured an order of court which recognized Nwifuru’s defection to the APC, adding that the petitioners only based their case on BVAS report which is not recognized by the electoral act as the only evidence to rely on.
Counsel representing APC, Keyinde Ogunwumiju SAN, while adopting his processes, rejected the documents tendered by the petitioner saying they were downloaded from IREV and were not certified.
While citing the judgement of the federal high court and he said Nwifuru who was once a member of PDP had defected since November 2020 to APC.
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On the issues of noncompliance, he argued that even if 33000 votes which they claimed were affected, were deducted from Nwifuru’s votes who scored 199131, he would have still scored more than 80191 votes scored by the petitioner.
The petitioners’ counsel Chris Uche SAN while adopting their final written address, urged the court to uphold their objections and reject the documents tendered by the respondents and rule their documents properly admitted.
(Editor: Oloyede Oworu)
