16th November, 2011
The Appeal Court sitting in Enugu this afternoon ordered a retrial of the petition filed by Professor Dora Akunyili of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, challenging the victory of Dr. Chris Ngige of the Action Congress of Nigeria ACN in the Anambra Central Senatorial election.
The Anambra State Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Awka, had earlier dismissed the APGA candidateâ€
The Anambra senatorial election which was held in April was declared inconclusive by INEC because the retuning officer disappeared only to appear three days later and declared Ngige as the winner of the election.
Following the stalemate, INEC ordered a rerun in three local government areas of the state.
Ngige was also declared the winner but Akunyili protested and went to the election petition tribunal to challenge Ngigeâ€
The tribunal struck out her application on 20 October and upheld the decision of INEC to declare Ngige winner.
The tribunal threw out Akunyiliâ€
Before todayâ€
In his address, Ngigeâ€
He prayed the court to adjourn the appeal on the ground that some vital information contained in the proceedings of 13 October of the tribunal were incomplete. The counsel stressed that continuing with the application filed by the appelant without comprehensive documents of the lower tribunal may not give his client a fair hearing. He urged the court to give him 24 hours to enable him provide some of the documents missing in the records of the tribunal.
Akunyiliâ€