The State and National Assembly Appeal Court sitting in Lagos has affirmed the election of Mr. Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru as the duly elected governor of Ebonyi State in the March 18 governorship election.
The 3-member panel presided over by Justice Justice Jummai Hannatu Sankey in its unanimous decision dismissed two separate Appeals filed by Chukwuma Ifeanyi Odii of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and that of Bernard Odoh, of the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) respectively.
Other members of the Panel are Justice Biobele Abraham Georgewill, and Justice Ali Ibrahim Andeyangtso.
The panel resolved all the issues raised against the Appellants and dismissed the two Appeals for lacking in merit.
Justice Sankey in her lead judgement held that the PDP and its candidate lacked the legal right to meddle into the internal affairs of the APC as it relates to nomination of candidates.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Mr. Nwifuru of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the state’s last conducted governorship poll.
Nwifuru garnered a total of 199,131 votes cast across the 13 local governments in the state to defeat his closest challenger, Ifeanyi Odii who got a total of 80,191 votes to become second, while Bernard Odoh, the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), came a distant third with 52, 189 votes.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the election, the Appellants in their separate Appeals contended that Nwifuru was illegally nominated by the APC because he was still a member of the (PDP) as the speaker of the Ebonyi house of assembly at the time of his nomination as his party’s flag-bearer.
However, the Ebonyi State Election Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja, affirmed the election of Francis Nwifuru of the All Progressives Congress as the Governor of the state.
The tribunal also dismissed the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party and its governorship candidate, Ifeanyi Odii and that of Bernard Odoh, the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
Dissatisfied, the Appellants challenged the judgement of the Tribunal and urged the Appellate court to set aside.
In her lead Judgement, Justice Sankey held that the issues qualification/disqualification of the 2nd Respondent (Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru) was an internal affair of the All Progressive Congress, APC, which the PDP and its candidate lacked the legal right to meddle into.
Justice Sankey held that the issue of qualification was a pre-election matter which the lower tribunal does not have the jurisdiction to entertain.
“The membership of a political party is a domestic affair, and it is within the exclusive confines of a political party to determine its membership. I am in complete agreement with the lower Tribunal that the issue if membership of the 2nd Respondent is not justiciable. The court should not drag itself into unnecessary political issues “
Delivering Judgment in a sister Appeal, Justice Biobele Abraham Georgewill also dismissed the petition filed by Odoh and APGA on the ground that they lacked locus standi to challenge Nwifuru’s electoral victory.
The court also held that APGA failed to appeal a federal high court judgment which confirmed the Nwifuru’s defection from PDP to APC.
The court held that the Appeal lacked merit, and dismissed it accordingly.
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