Alex Enumah in Abuja
Governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah, has hailed yesterday’s Supreme Court verdict that upheld his election in the March 18, 2023 governorship poll, saying distractions were over, as he vowed to redouble effort in the delivery of his mandate to make Enugu State better.
Mbah, who described the process of the judicial review of his mandate by the Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court as a huge emotional journey, physical, and spiritual investment for the people of Enugu, thanked them for their support every step of the way, promising not to disappoint them.
He made the statements in Enugu, yesterday, while reacting to the apex court verdict in Abuja, which dismissed the appeal of the Labour Party governorship candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, earlier in the day.
The governor, who spoke at the Government House amidst cheers, drumming, and dancing by jubilant Enugu residents, who thronged the seat of power, said it was victory for the people and a nudge to continue the development strides and to pursue his vision for a greater Enugu State.
He said: “A few minutes ago, the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, delivered the final judgement on the last tranche of appeals against the mandate you freely gave us on March 18, 2023. We thank God that the learned justices affirmed your sacred will.
“We wish to express our profound gratitude to the learned justices for keeping the wheel of justice rolling. We specifically thank them for upholding your mandate.”
Earlier yesterday, the Supreme Court had affirmed the declaration of Mbah as Governor of Enugu State.
According to a five-member panel of justices of the apex court, there was no reason to deviate from the concurrent judgments of the lower governorship tribunal and the Court of Appeal, which had in their separate judgments held that Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was lawfully elected governor at the March 18 governorship election.
The panel led by Justice John Okoro, subsequently dismissed the appeal filed by the Labour Party (LP), and Edeoga, against the outcome of the governorship election in Enugu State.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had declared Mbah winner of the Enugu State governorship election haven scored majority of the lawful votes cast at the election.
According to the electoral umpire, Mbah polled 160,895 votes, while his closest rival, Edeoga of the LP scored 157,552 votes, and was followed by Frank Nweke of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), with 17, 983.
Dissatisfied, Edeoga citing alleged irregularities, malpractices, non-compliance and corrupt practices had asked the governorship election tribunal to set aside INEC’s declaration and return him as the authentic winner of the March 18 election.
But the tribunal in its judgment held that the LP candidate failed to substantiate his allegations against the election and subsequently dismissed the petition.
The Court of Appeal in its own judgment also dismissed Edeoga’s appeal against the judgment of the Enugu State Governorship Election Petition, for being incompetent and lacking in merit, prompting the instant appeal at the apex court.
However, the apex court like the two lower courts held that the appellants did not give enough credible evidence to warrant delivering judgment in his favour.
According to the apex court, it found no reason to dislodge the concurrent verdicts of the lower tribunal and the Court of Appeal, which sat in Lagos.
The apex court subsequently resolved all the issues that were raised in the appeal, against the LP and Edeoga.
The Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal had on November 10, upheld Mbah’s election as governor, shortly after it dismissed the appellants case raised against the governor.
In a unanimous judgement, a three-member panel of the appellate court led by Justice Tani Yusuf-Hassan, held that Edeoga and his party failed to establish their allegation that governor Mbah was not qualified to contest the gubernatorial poll.
The court noted that though the appellants alleged that there was widespread over-voting within Mbah’s strongholds, they, however, failed to tender the voters register that was used for the election, to prove the allegation.
It was the position of the appellate court that the LP and its candidate failed to adduce sufficient reasons to warrant the setting aside of the earlier verdict of the Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which dismissed their case.
It accordingly dismissed the appeal as lacking in merit and affirmed Mbah as the valid winner of the governorship election.
The three-member panel of the governorship election tribunal led by Justice K.M. Akano-led had on September 9, dismissed the petition of Edeoga against Mbah for lacking in merit.
Besides, the tribunal held that Mbah met the minimum requirements for the election, which it said included the possessing of a school certificate or its equivalent.
More so, the tribunal held that the issue of forgery, being a criminal allegation, ought to be proved beyond reasonable doubt.
The tribunal further rejected the testimony of some of the witnesses that testified in the matter, stressing that their evidence were inadmissible since their statement on oath were not filed alongside the petition.
