15th September, 2023
The All Progressives Congress, APC, on Friday failed in its bid to get the Supreme Court to nullify the victory of Peter Mbah of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the March 18 Enugu governorship election.
In a unanimous decision by a five-member panel, the Supreme threw away the appeal by the APC, and its governorship candidate, Uche Nnaji against the declaration of Mbah as winner of the governorship election contest.
In the judgment prepared by Justice Tijani Abubakar, the apex court described the brief filed by Nnaji and his party againt the judgment of Appeal as invalid.
The apex court noted that the appellants failed to adduce any cogent reason why the invalid process they filed should be relied upon to invalidate governor Mbah’s election victory.
According to the Supreme Court, since the appellants’ brief of argument was legally defective, it ultimately affected the substantive appeal.
It therefore dismissed the case of the appellants for being incompetent.
APC had headed to Supreme Court after Court of Appeal in Enugu dismissed the suit it filed against against Mbah in July.
The appellate court had in the judgment held that suit filed by APC lacked merit.
It therefore upheld the verdict of the Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, which affirmed governor Mbah’s election victory.
The appellate court also awarded a cost of N250,000 each, against Nnaji and the APC.