An election petition tribunal sitting in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state, have sacked Mr. Simon Atigwe, the member representing Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency of Enugu state and declared the candidate of the Labour Party, Dennis Agbo, winner.
The court in its judgement, delivered on Wednesday, sided with the LP candidate who challenged the rerun election results which declared the PDP candidate winner over allegations of wrong computation of results and substantial non-compliance to the Electoral Law 2022, among others.
The initial election in 2023 had the Labour Party candidate as winner but a challenge by the All-Progressives Congress Candidate, Oby Ajih, led a court of Appeal in Lagos to order a rerun in February this year. The APC candidate argued that the election did not follow the right process as the logo of her party was not in the INEC’s EC8A form for the exercise.
In the rerun held in February 2024, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said the PDP candidate polled 23,863 votes to defeat his closest rival, Mr Agbo of the Labour Party, who scored 23, 226 votes, a tally that has now been upended by the Tribunal.
Delivering judgement on Wednesday, the tribunal held that Mr Agbo’s petition had merit and consequently declared him the actual winner of the re-run election for the constituency, Ifeanyi Ogenyi, the lawmaker’s counsel, confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES.
Mr Kunaza’s panel ruled that Mr Atigwe was not duly elected by the valid votes cast as the petitioner (Agbo) won with 23,221 and PDP 21,863 votes.
It ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Mr Atigwe and issue it to Mr Agbo.
