Supreme Court Reserves Judgement in Ebonyi Appeal seeking to sack Gov Nwifuru

Chigozie Ikpo, Abuja

The Supreme Court has reserved judgment on appeals seeking to nullify the victory of Governor Francis Nwifuru at the March 18 governorship election in Ebonyi state.

The Supreme court reserved judgment on the appeals following the adoption of the final briefs of argument amongst parties involved.

The five member panel led by Justice Inyang Okoro said it would communicate the judgment date to all the parties.

Recall that the Ebonyi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal had on September 27, 2023, affirmed governor Nwifuru of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the valid winner of the gubernatorial contest that held in the state on March 18, 2023.

The Justice A. Ogunmoye-led three-member panel, in separate judgements, unanimously dismissed two petitions that were brought against governor Nwifuru by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Chief Ifeanyi Odii, as well as by the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, and its own candidate, Prof. Benard Odoh.

According to the tribunal, the petitioners failed to establish their allegations that governor Nwifuru did not secure the majority of lawful votes that were cast during the election.

The Independent National Election Commission, INEC, had declared that Nwifuru polled a total of 199,131 votes across the 13 Local Government Areas of the state to beat his closest rival, Dr. Odii of the PDP who scored 80,191 votes.

Dissatisfied with the outcome of the poll, both PDP and APGA candidates approached the tribunal to challenge the return of Nwifuru as winner of the gubernatorial contest by the INEC.

The petitioners, among other things, sought Nwifuru’s disqualification on the grounds of certificate forgery and his alleged ineligibility to stand for the election.

The petitioners told the tribunal that Nwifuru’s election victory was characterized by corrupt practices, alleging that there was substantial non compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.

Besides, they argued that Nwifuru did not validly resign from the PDP before he was nominated as the governorship candidate of the APC.

According the petitioners, Nwifuru, being a PDP member at all material times before the governorship poll, was not eligible under section 177(c) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, to have been sponsored by the APC to contest as its flag-bearer.

They told the tribunal that prior to the governorship contest, Nwifuru, who was elected into the Ebonyi State House of Assembly in 1999, served as Speaker while on the ticket of the PDP, until May 2023.

They argued that Nwifuru was at the time of the election, still a member of the PDP and as such was not eligible to be sponsored for the election by the APC.

Consequently, PDP and its candidate, in the joint petition they filed through their legal team led by Chief Chris Uche, SAN, prayed the tribunal to declare that they were the valid winners of the governorship election.

They further prayed the court to withdraw the Certificate of Return that was issued to governor Nwifuru by INEC and issue a fresh one to Dr. Odii.

More so, the petitioners cited a subsisting judgement of a High Court in Ebonyi state, delivered by Justice Henry Njoku, which they said held that Nwifuru and other lawmakers in the state that purportedly defected to the APC, were still members of the PDP.

Likewise, APGA and its candidate, Odoh, prayed the tribunal to nullify the election and order a fresh one.

Adopting their final written address, APGA and Odoh, through their own team of lawyers led by Mr. Jibrin Okutepa, SAN, argued that governor Nwifuru was not qualified to contest the gubernatorial poll, insisting that he did not validly resign his PDP membership.

However, the tribunal which dismissed the two petitions, held that the litigants failed to establish why the outcome of the governorship poll should be voided.

The tribunal noted that some of the grounds of the petitions were pre-election issues that were not only within the realm of domestic affairs of a political party, but equally not justiceable.

It held that the petitioners lacked the locus standi to challenge the nomination of governor Nwifuru by the APC to contest the election.

The tribunal added that the petitioners failed to produce evidence and details of polling units were the alleged infractions occurred.

The tribunal judgement was upheld by the Court of Appeal, resulting to the the agreived parties filing its appeals before the Supreme Court.