The Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Enugu State has fixed Thursday to deliver judgement on the petition filed by the Labour Party candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, against the declaration of Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party, as the validly elected governor of the state.
Edeoga is challenging the return of the Mbah as the duly elected governor of Enugu state in the March 18, 2023 governorship election.
The three-member Panel of the tribunal, led by Justice Kudirat Murayo, will deliver judgement in the highly contested March 18 poll.
Edeoga, a former Chairman of the House of Representatives on Information, had approached the tribunal to disqualify Mbah and declare him the winner of the election, having scored the highest valid votes cast.
The LP candidate argued that the PDP candidate wasn’t qualified to stand for the election and didn’t score the highest number of votes cast.
However, Mbah told the tribunal that Edeoga was not validly nominated as the governorship candidate of the LP and lacked the locus to challenge his victory.
Mbah, in his submission, revealed that Edeoga, who participated in the governorship primary of the PDP held May 25, 2022, and who was also recorded to have scored nine votes in the said primary election, could not under the Electoral Act 2022 be presented by LP as its candidate.
The parties had on August 16, adopted their final written addresses, after which the court reserved ruling on the petitions.
INEC was the first respondent in the petition, and Dr Mbah and PDP are listed as the second and third respondents, respectively.
