Governor Peter Mbah‘s victory in the March 18th, 2023, Enugu governorship election was affirmed by the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal on Thursday.
A three-member tribunal led by Kudirat Akano, while delivering the judgement, dismissed the petition filed by the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Chijioke Edeoga.
OsunDailyNG recalls that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Mbah, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the winner of the March 18 governorship election with 160,895 votes.
Edeoga came second with 157,552 votes, while Frank Nweke of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) polled 17,983 votes to claim third place.
LP and Edeoga had approached the tribunal seeking to disqualify Mbah and declare him the winner of the election.
Edeoga claimed to have polled the highest valid votes cast in the election.
The petitioners also challenged the candidacy of Mbah over an alleged forgery of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate.
The tribunal, however, ruled that Edeoga and his party failed to prove their case.
The court held that Mbah met the minimum requirement to stand for election, which is a school certificate or its equivalent.
Download the full text of the judgement here.
