Tribunal sacks Enugu Reps member, declares LP candidate winner

Enugu PDP elects council chairmanship candidates ahead of October LG polls

The by-election petition tribunal yesterday sacked the House of Representatives member representing Igboeze North/Udenu Federal Constituency, Simon Atigwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The tribunal, which sat in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, declared the candidate of the Labour Party, Dennis Agbo, winner of the rerun election held on February 3, 2024.

   
Agbo earlier won the seat during the 2023 general election, but the Court of Appeal annulled his victory and ordered a rerun in about 10 polling units. The petition sacking Agbo was filed by the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election, which proved that the result sheets of the affected units did not include the scores of APC.
   
LP’s Agbo led the PDP candidate by over 10,000 votes before the court ordered for rerun. However, during the rerun, the PDP candidate won. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Atigwe the winner in the rerun with 23,863 votes while Agbo garnered 23,226 votes.
   
Agbo had petitioned the outcome at the tribunal, arguing that the election was marred by wrong computation of results and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act. In the ruling on Wednesday, the tribunal, headed by Justice H.N. Kunaza, held that the petition had merit and declared Agbo the actual winner of Igbo Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency.

MEANWHILE, ahead of the October 2024 local council election in Enugu, the state’s chapter of the PDP yesterday elected the party’s chairmanship candidate for the 17 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state. The party had also earlier elected its councillorship candidates for the 260 electoral wards of the state on Monday.

   
This was even as the governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, congratulated the winners and also commended the party faithful for their peaceful conduct during the two primary elections.
   
Yesterday’s exercise, which witnessed mass turnout of party delegates and stakeholders in the 17 LGAs saw the eventual candidates clear the polls in most places following weeks of consensus-building preceding the exercise. Many aspirants, who spoke at the venues, declared support for the eventual winners, urging their supporters to vote for them.
   
However, only two former council chairmen, namely, Okechukwu Edeh of Nkanu East LGA and Obiora Obeagu of Isi-Uzo LGA were returned as the party’s candidates for the forthcoming council elections.

Other winners include Beloved Dan Anike (Enugu East), Jude Asogwa (Nsukka), Caleb Ani (Enugu South), Ibenaku Onoh (Enugu North), John Ogbodo (Nkanu West), Ugochukwu Nwanjoku (Aninri), Uche Okolo (Awgu), Vita Ndu (Ezeagu), and Gregory Anyaegbudike (Oji River).
   
Hyginus Agu (Udi), Michael Ogala (Igboeze North), Ferdinand Ukwueze (Igboeze South), Aka Eze Aka (Udenu), Eric Odo (Igbo Etiti), and Chijioke Ezugwu (Uzo Uwani) equally won in their respective LGAs.
   
In his congratulatory message, Governor Mbah expressed satisfaction with the reports of the peaceful, free, fair, and credible process he received about the exercise across the state.