The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an appeal filed by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Uche Nnaji seeking to nullify the election of the governor of Enugu state, Dr. Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the March 18, 2023 governorship election in Enugu State.
A five-member panel of Justices of the apex court, in a unanimous judgement, delivered by Justice Tijani Abubakar, held that Nnaji and his party filed an invalid brief of argument, which rendered their appeal incompetent.
The apex Court upheld the decisions of the Enugu state governorship election petition tribunal and the Court of Appeal, maintaining that since the appellants’ brief was found to be invalid, the invalidity also naturally affected the appeal in respect of which the appeal was filed.
The court also held that Nnaji failed to explain why the invalid process he filed should be relied upon to invalidate Mbah’s victory.
Nnaji, who polled 14,575 votes against Mbah’s 160,895 votes to come a distant fourth in the 2023 gubernatorial election in Enugu state, had wanted the court to nullify Mbah’s election and declare him governor of the state.
He prayed the tribunal to disqualify for various reasons, including alleged assets declaration breaches, Dr. Mbah of the PDP, the Labour Party’s Candidate, Chijioke Edeoga and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate, Frank Nweke Junior.
Nnaji maintained that he was the only one qualified to run for the election and should therefore be declared the winner.
But, in June this year, the Enugu state governorship election petition tribunal, chaired by Justice Kudurat M. Akano, dismissed his petition for being incompetent, frivolous and not filed in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
The petitioners proceeded to the Court of Appeal seeking the leave of the court to regularise their petition, an appeal rejected by the appellate court in a lead judgment read by Justice J.O.K Oyewole in July, which upheld the decision of the tribunal.
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