*Faults Enugu Guber Tribunal judgement vis-a-vis Nasarawa
*Vows to follow constitutional means to reclaim stolen mandate
By Chesa Chesa
The Labour Party (LP) has listed facts to support its claims that its candidate, Hon. Chijioke Edeoga, won the march 18, 2023 gubernatorial election in Enugu State.
The party faulted the judgement of the Enugu State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, which dismissed the party’s petition and declared Mr. Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Mbah as the winner of the election with 160,895 votes, while Edeoga came second with 157,552 votes.
But Edeoga and the LP contested this verdict before the Tribunal led by Justice Kudirat Akano, which however, recently dismissed the petition.
Addressing journalists at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, the LP National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Obiora Ifoh, described the verdict as total and absolute miscarriage of justice.
Reading a text titled “Enugu Guber Tribunal Judgement, Nasarawa Guber Tribunal Judgement, Nkanu East LGA: Similar Facts, Different Judgement”, stated that Barr. Edeoga, “based on the outcomes of all the elections held in the state between February and March this year, defeated Mbah, who has been sworn into office as Enugu State Governor”.
Ifoh pointed out that the Labour Party by winning two out of the three senatorial seats in the state, seven out of eight House of Representatives seats, and 14 out of the 24 seats in the state’s House of Assembly attest to the fact that the Party won the governorship election.
According to him: “The Labour Party candidate, Barr. Chijioke Edeoga, was cruising to victory with the results of the election declared in 16 out of the 17 LGAs of the state when the PDP colluded with INEC to manufacture 30,000 plus votes for Mbah in the remaining Nkanu-East LGA, even when only about 15,000 voters were accredited in that Mbah’s home LGA of Mbah.
“To be clear, it is important that Nigerians understand that Enugu is a Labour Party state, and we make bold to say that the Labour Party’s candidate, Hon. Chijioke Edeoga, clearly won the March 18 governorship election held in Enugu.
“This claim is justified by the outcome of all the other elections held in the state between February and March this year.
“The Labour Party won two out of three senatorial seats in the state, seven out of the eight Rep seats, and 14 out of 24 seats in the State House of Assembly.
“The INEC Returning Officer for the state, Prof. Maduebibisi Iwe, had rejected the figures from Nkanu-East because the BVAS was discarded, prompting the INEC headquarters to invite him to Abuja.
“After three days, an Abuja INEC panel led by Barr. Festus Okoye, reduced the total of 33,000 plus votes illegally hurled from Nkanu-East alone to about 19,000 but gave Mbah almost 17,000 votes to enable him to beat LP’s Edeoga (who was leading with over 11,000 votes) with over 3,000 votes.
“It was essentially the above clear cases of over-voting that prompted the Labour Party and its candidate, Hon. Edeoga, to approach the Elections Tribunal in the hope that the judiciary will review and correct that anomaly.”
Dr. Ifoh added that whereas in Nasarawa State, all the votes suppressed for the PDP were later returned to the party by the State’s Election Tribunal, it remains a surprise and a shock that the same did not apply in Enugu, which has similar facts and circumstances in the instance as Nasarawa.
He therefore, described the Enugu State Election Petition Tribunal’s judgement as unacceptable and unconstitutional.
“In juxtaposing the above decision with the judgement delivered in the case of Nasarawa, the Governorship Petition Tribunal in Nasarawa State rightly admitted the testimonies of the star witnesses who came to testify that the votes of the PDP in Ashigie Ward, Chiroma Ward, etc. were wrongly suppressed and thereafter ordered the restoration of the said votes to the PDP, even when the witnesses therein were not polling agents of the PDP,” he added.
The LP’s Deputy National Chairman and Legal Adviser, Dr. Ayo Olorunfemi and Barr. Kehinde Edun, respectively, declared confidence in the judiciary as the last hope of the common man, adding that the party was insistent on expressing its dissatisfaction with the Enugu judgement and would carry the electorate along in its quest for justice to be done.
They said the Party would do everything constitutionally to make sure that good governance is enthroned in Nigeria.
