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Enugu N’ Assembly Election Tribunal: APGA candidate drags PDP Rep to court

By Terhemba Daka, Abuja
26 October 2015   |   3:39 am
THE candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency election in Enugu State, Prince Emeka Mamah, has dragged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate and member of the Federal House of Representatives, Hon Agbo Dennis Nnamdi, to the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu, urging the appellate court to return him as duly-elected representative for the constituency.

Nigerias-national-assembly1THE candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency election in Enugu State, Prince Emeka Mamah, has dragged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate and member of the Federal House of Representatives, Hon Agbo Dennis Nnamdi, to the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu, urging the appellate court to return him as duly-elected representative for the constituency.

Specifically, Mamah is seeking the court to set aside the judgment of the election petition tribunal delivered in EPT/ENU/NASS/HR/11/2015 on October 9, 2015, which awarded victory to Nnamdi, the PDP candidate.

Speaking in Abuja on Saturday, Counsel to the APGA candidate, Barrister Abel Ozioko, argued that the justices at the election tribunal erred in law when they held that the appellants (Mamah and APGA) did not discharge any type of burden of proof the law places on them beyond reasonable doubt.

Ozioko maintained that the petitioners proved the allegation of over-voting on the balance of probabilities, insisting that his client and first petitioner ought to have been declared winner based on the lawful votes cast in the remaining polling units where the results were not nullified.

He stated that the petitioners prayed the court to give an order nullifying the results in 27 polling units for the votes cast being in excess of accredited voters in the stated polling units.
“There are 30 wards in the constituency, we are challenging the result in 27 of the thirty wards.

The petitioners, according to him, equally prayed the appellate court to determine whether upon nullification of all the results in the polling units, the appellants scored the majority of lawful votes cast in the remaining wards and polling units in the constituency where lawful votes were cast and not disputed by parties.

Part of the prayers, according to him, is “A consequential order compelling the first respondent to refund/pay to the first petitioner all allowances, honorarium, salaries, emoluments, perquisites or entitlements howsoever described that accrued to the first respondent as a result of being in the House of Representatives during the pendency of this petition at the Tribunal and this Honourable Court.”

Further, the counsel said: “I have confidence in the judiciary and I hope to see the judiciary backing up the reform that the former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) boss, Professor Attahiru Jega brought to our electoral system, otherwise, we will be going back to square one. The fact that we lost in court of first instance does not erode our confidence in the judiciary to right the wrongs.
“I think cases should not be dismissed hanging on technicalities but should be determined on merit so that a petitioner can have a sense of satisfaction that his case has been heard on merit.”

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