On Friday, the Supreme Court denied the appeal made by the All Progressives Congress and Uche Nnaji, who ran for governor of Enugu State and challenged Governor Peter Mbah’s victory.
During the election, Mbah represented the Peoples Democratic Party.
The All Progressives Party candidate, who received 14,575 votes overall compared to Mbah’s 160,895 votes and finished a distant fourth in the election, requested that Mbah, Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party, and Frank Nweke Jr. of the All Progressives Grand Alliance be declared ineligible.
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He asserted that the candidates were unable to run for office because they, among other things, violated the asset declaration statute.
On June 20, 2023, the Nnaji petition was denied by the Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which is presided over by Justice K.M. Akano.
Nnaji was not pleased and went to the court of appeal to request that it return the petition that had been denied back to the Tribunal so that the case may be heard and decided.
The Enugu Division of the Court of Appeal confirmed the Tribunal’s ruling and rejected the lawsuit, awarding N250,000 to Nnaji and the APC separately.
A five-member panel of the supreme court rendered its decision on the appeal on Friday, concluding that the APC and Nnaji’s legal team filed an invalid brief of argument and failed to persuade the court with a convincing explanation as to why the appellants’ inadequate brief should be granted.
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Justice Tijani Abubakar stated in the lead judgement that because the appellant’s brief was deemed to be illegal, the appeal for which the appeal was filed was likewise invalid.
He then went on to dismiss the appellants’ appeal and brief.
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