Supreme Court Upholds Mbah’s Victory in Enugu Governorship Election

Supreme Court Upholds Mbah’s Victory in Enugu Governorship Election

The Supreme Court has affirmed the victory of Governor Peter Mbah in the Enugu State governorship election, dismissing the appeal filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Uche Nnaji.

Governor Peter Mbah was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the election, in which he secured 160,895 votes, while the APC candidate, Uche Nnaji, polled 14,575 votes, placing a distant fourth in the election.

In their appeal, the APC candidate sought to disqualify Governor Mbah, as well as candidates from the Labour Party and the All Progressives Grand Alliance, alleging violations of the asset declaration law and other reliefs.

However, on June 20, 2023, Justice K.M Akano-led Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal dismissed Nnaji’s petition. Dissatisfied with the decision, Nnaji took the case to the Court of Appeal, urging it to remit the dismissed petition back to the Tribunal for further consideration.

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The Court of Appeal’s Enugu Division upheld the Tribunal’s ruling and additionally imposed a fine of N250,000 each against Nnaji and the APC.

In the recent judgment delivered by a five-member panel of the Supreme Court, it was determined that the legal team of the APC and Nnaji had submitted an invalid brief of argument and failed to provide compelling reasons for the court to accept their incompetent brief.

Justice Tijani Abubakar, in the lead judgment, emphasized that the invalidity of the appellant’s brief also affected the appeal itself. Consequently, the Supreme Court dismissed both the brief and the appeal filed by the appellants, thereby upholding Governor Peter Mbah’s victory in the Enugu governorship election.

Supreme Court Upholds Mbah’s Victory in Enugu Governorship Election