The Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal for Ebonyi State, sitting in Abuja, delivered a verdict on Wednesday that upheld the election victory of Francis Nwifuru, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the Governor of the state. The tribunal also dismissed the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Ifeanyi Odii.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had previously declared Francis Nwifuru as the winner of the gubernatorial election held on March 18, with 199,131 votes, while Ifeanyi Odii came second with 80,191 votes. However, Odii and the PDP disputed the outcome and vowed to challenge it.
Consequently, they approached the tribunal, seeking to nullify Nwifuru’s election on the grounds of non-compliance with the Electoral Act of 2022 and alleged failure to secure the majority of lawful votes cast during the gubernatorial poll.
Odii and the PDP’s legal team argued that Nwifuru was not qualified to contest the election on the APC platform because he was still a member of the People’s Democratic Party at the time of the election. However, the APC provided evidence to the tribunal, including a letter, demonstrating that Nwifuru had resigned from the PDP while serving as the Speaker of the State House of Assembly and had subsequently joined the APC before its primary election.
In its judgment on September 27, the three-member panel of the Tribunal, chaired by Justice Lekan Ogunmoye, ruled that the issue of nomination and sponsorship by a political party, being a pre-election matter, should have been contested before the Federal High Court prior to the election. The tribunal declined jurisdiction to entertain the grounds related to Nwifuru’s sponsorship by the APC, deeming it an internal political party matter.
Justice Ogunmoye further ruled that the petitioners were unable to prove non-compliance with the Electoral Act in the election. He emphasized that “membership of a political party is a non-justiciable issue.”
The tribunal also pointed out that it could not overturn a Federal High Court judgment, which had previously acknowledged Nwifuru’s defection to the APC while he was a lawmaker. The PDP was faulted for not appealing the trial court’s judgment earlier.
Regarding the PDP’s claims of over-voting, result sheet mutilation, and result inflation, the tribunal noted that the petitioners had called 20 witnesses who failed to provide evidence that the contested polling unit result sheets were flawed or not stamped in accordance with relevant laws.
Justice Lekan maintained, “The allegations of the petitioners remain unproven,” and cited a Supreme Court judgment which states that overvoting can only be proven using the Voters Register, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System report, and Form EC8As.
In conclusion, the tribunal dismissed the petition and affirmed Francis Nwifuru as the duly elected governor of Ebonyi State.