ANAMBRA State
governorship election tribunal, on Wednesday, dismissed petition challenging
the election of Chief Willie Obiano as governor of the state.
The tribunal dismissed the application of the factional
candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Dr Chike Obidigbo, his
All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, Dr Chris Ngige and the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the election, Tony Nwoye, for lacking in
merit.
The first judgment read by Justice Ishaq Bello-led tribunal on
the matter between Obidigbo and Obiano stated that Obiano was validly nominated
as the candidate of APGA, and that the election that brought him to office was
conducted in compliance with the Electoral Act, as amended.
The tribunal also dismissed the issue of multiple registration,
saying that no criminal charges were brought against Obiano before any
magistrate or high court in the state.
It also struck out the petition brought before it by the APC
candidate in the election, Dr Ngige, for lack of evidence.
Contrary to the claims of Ngige’s counsel that the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) lacked the power to extend the date of
election, the tribunal held that INEC had the power to do so.
It also held that in the case of unforeseen circumstances, the
important thing was that the election should be in consonance with the
electoral guideline.
Reacting to the victory, the national chairman of APGA, Chief
Victor Umeh, said the judgment had vindicated his party and absolved it of any
wrong in fielding Obiano.
“We have been vindicated. We sponsored only one candidate in the
election and that is Obiano, and he is the winner. We won the election in a
landslide and the tribunal has confirmed so.
“For Obidigbo, he was ignorant of the law and the electoral
process to have brought this petition to the tribunal, because we never
sponsored him at all. All their claims and noise that we sponsored him has
fallen today, because all the submissions by his counsel and ours were
reviewed,” he said.
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Politics