The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Enugu State has affirmed the election of Dr. Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party as the duly elected governor of the state.
The presiding Judge, Justice Kudirat Murayo dismissed the petitions of Chijioke Edeoga, candidate of the Labour party and that of Chris Agu of the People’s Redemption Party, insisting that they could not prove their petitions.
Chijioke Edeoga and Chris Agu said Mbah was not qualified to contest the election because he present before INEC a forged National Youth Service Corps, NYSC certificate. PRP and Labour party alleged that there were cases of over-voting in Udenu, Nkanu East and Enugu East local government areas, and therefore prayed the tribunal to nullify Mbah’s election.
However, the three-member panel of the tribunal led by Justice Murayo dismissed all the allegations, saying “NYSC discharge Certificate is not a qualification for governorship.”
The court queried “Assuming that the NYSC discharge certificate of the second Respondent as claimed by the Petitioners was forged, is the NYSC Certificate a qualification to contest for Governor in Nigeria according to the constitution? The answer is no.”
Reacting to the tribunal’s verdict, Enugu state chairman of Labour Party, Barr. Casmir Agbo rejected the judgment, saying that the three man panel failed to treat the issue of forgery by Peter Mbah.
Agbo said: “Tribunal in his wisdom today failed to present the fact and law, when they said in the first, place that Barr. Peter Mbah who attached forged certificate is qualified to contest the election. They said it is not a requirement to contest the election.
“Instead of the tribunal to determine whether the certificate was forged but only ruled on the subpoena of NYSC head of certificate did not meet the requirement specifications of time to upload his written statement.
“We are asking the tribunal if a witness must bring his written statement before the date of court, the answer is no. They are following the footstep of Appeal court on Peter Obi and they are in Supreme Court and we are going over to appeal court,” he added.
