Enugu West: Appeal Court Upholds Ekweremadu’s Election

The Court of Appeal in Enugu has upheld the victory of Senator Ike Ekweremadu in the February 23 senatorial election for Enugu West.

In a unanimous judgment delivered on Tuesday by the panel chaired by Justice I.M. Salawu, the court dismissed the appeal filed by Juliet Ibekaku-Nwagwu of the All Progressives Congress for lacking in merit.

The court held that the appellants failed to prove allegations of non-compliance to the Electoral Act and as such were not entitled to the reliefs sought.

Concise News reports that the National and State Assembly Elections Petitions Tribunal that sat in Enugu had on September 9, upheld the victory of Ekweremadu of the Peoples Democratic Party.

Dissatisfied with the judgment of the trial court, Ibekaku-Nwagwu approached the appellate court with sundry allegations that bother on non-compliance to the Electoral Act.

The appellant alleged incidences of over voting as well as announcement of result by the Independent National Electoral Commission while collation was still ongoing.

However, the appellate court, while upholding the decision of the trial court held that the appeal anchored on the refusal of the tribunal to nullify the elections in the 824 polling units of the zone failed woefully.

The court said that the winner of the election cannot have his election nullified on the allegations that the result sheet of the election was not dated.

The court awarded N50, 000 costs against the appellants in favour of each of the respondents which include the PDP, INEC and Ekweremadu.

Meanwhile, Ibekaku-Nwagwu has thanked her supporters for their loyalty and faith while her attempt to represent them at the red chambers lasted.