The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the appeal filed by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Uche Nnaji challenging the victory of Governor Peter Mbah of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP in the last general elections.
News About Nigeria gathered that the APC candidate, who polled a total of 14,575 against Mbah’s 160,895 votes, to come a distant fourth in the election, asked the court to disqualify Mbah; the Labour Party Chijioke Edeoga, and that of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Frank Nweke Jr.
According to him, the candidates from the other parties were not qualified to contest in the election, because they failed to declare their correct asset.
The judgement of the Appeal Court which dismisses his suit was delivered by the Justice K.M Akano-led Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal on June 20, 2023.
Nnaji not satisfied then approached the court of appeal, praying it to send the dismissed petition back to the Tribunal for hearing and determination of the suit.
In contrast to his appeal, the Enugu Division of the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Tribunal and dismissed the suit, awarding the sum of N250,000 each against Nnaji and the APC.
The five-member panel of the supreme court who delivered judgement on the appeal, held that the legal team of the APC and Nnaji filed an invalid brief of argument and failed to convince the court with substantial evidence why the incompetent brief should be allowed.
The panel in their lead judgement by Justice Tijani Abubakar ruled that since the appellant’s brief was found to be invalid, the invalidity also affected the appeal in respect of which the appeal was filed.
He, therefore, proceeded to dismiss the brief and appeal filed by the candidate of the APC.
