The article from the vanguard news read that The Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Enugu State has reserved judgments on the matters among Hon. Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party, LP; Comrade Chris Agu of the Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, as petitioners; and Governor Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who all contested the March 18 gubernatorial election in the state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared Mbah the winner of the election, but Edeoga and Agu, in objection, approached the tribunal, claiming that there were wrong computations of the results obtained in the field that skewed votes to Mbah, adding also that the PDP candidate submitted a forged NYSC Certificate to the electoral umpire.
Adopting their last written addresses, counsels for the LP candidate, led by Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), contended that Mbah falsified his NYSC certificate and was therefore disqualified from the election.
The key point of LP’s legal team was that, by the admission of all parties, Mbah presented a fake NYSC certificate and that the issuing institution was in the tribunal to testify that Mbah’s NYSC did not originate from the NYSC.
Ifeanyi Ogenyi, one of the LP’s counsels, stated that the NYSC indicated in a letter to a law firm, Oma & Partners, dated February 2, 2023, that the certificate did not originate from them and then went to appear at the Tribunal.
We have proven our case beyond reasonable doubt in the issue of presentation, and Section 182(j) of the constitution makes it clear that if a candidate presents a forged certificate to INEC, that candidate is disqualified; that is the legal position.
On the question of overvoting, it was proved before the court that there was overvoting in areas of Nkanu East LGA, Ogbawka, and Owo, as well as some polling units in Igboeze North LGA, and this evidence was not disputed by any of the respondents. In reality, INEC did not even call a single witness.
So we are hopeful that justice will be served in this case, and the matter has been reserved for judgment on a date to be communicated to the counsels. The article concludes that
Counsel of the PRP Governorship Candidate, Alex Amujiogu, stated that none of the charges made by his client, Comrade Chris Agu, were rejected by the respondents, particularly the matter of whether or not there were result sheets.
classicade (
)
