All things being equal, the Enugu governorship election Petitions Tribunal will on Wednesday, 16 August 2023 sit for the adoption of final written addresses of the Enugu Labour Party Governorship candidate, Barr. Chijioke Edeoga, Governor Peter Mbah and Peoples Democratic party, as well as the Independent National Electoral commission, INEC.
The three man tribunal headed by Honourable Justice Akano is also expected to reserve judgement after the adoption of the addresses.
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The electoral umpire had declared Mr. Mbah of the PDP winner of the keenly contested March 18 governorship election in the state.
Announcing the results after three days of waiting, the state’s returning officer, Prof. Iwe said he was under authority to announce the results.
Daily Gazette recall that the Enugu governorship results was taken to Abuja where over 30 thousand votes purportedly gotten by the PDP from Nkanu East LGA was slashed to about 19 thousand votes without any reason from the Abuja headquarters of INEC.
Dissatisfied with the outcome of the election which was largely described as electoral heist perpetuated by INEC in connivance with PDP, Barr. Chijioke Edeoga and Labour Party approached the Election Petitions tribunal sitting in Enugu to challenge the declaration of Mr. Mbah over allegations of forgery of his certificate of national service, NYSC, over voting especially in Nkanu East LGA, substantial non compliance with the electoral act, non use of BVAS in some polling units of Owo ward, Ugbawka ward 1 and 2, computational errors, among other irregularities.
INEC had declared that Peter Mba of the PDP secured a total of 160,895 votes to defeat his closest rival, Barr. Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party who pulled a total of 157,552 votes.
As Ndi Enugu await tribunal judgment with high hope, the onus is on the Honourable Justices to dispense justice without fear of sanction or favor.
The judiciary is undoubtedly in the eye of the storm and must do everything within it’s powers to redeem it’s age long batted image by upholding justice without pandering to pressure from politicians.
The people are waiting !
