The Supreme Court in Abuja has dismissed an appeal by the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging the election of Enugu State governor, Peter Mbah.
The APC and its governorship candidate in Enugu, Uche Nnaji, had in a joint pre-election suit, contested the emergence of Mr Mbah as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the March polls in the state.
In its unanimous judgement on Friday, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court said the appellants – the APC and Mr Nnaji – lodged a defective brief of argument.
In the lead verdict delivered by Tijjani Abubakar, the Supreme Court held that the APC failed to present any logical reasons for the court to nullify Mr Mbah’s candidacy.
Mr Abubakar explained that the defective filing rendered the substantive suit incompetent. He thereafter dismissed the suit.
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The Court of Appeal had in July dismissed the appellants’ suit against the governor.
In its decision, the appellate court held that the APC’s suit was unmeritorious.
The court fined the APC and Mr Nnaji N250,000 each, in favour of Mr Mbah and the PDP for filing a frivolous suit.
Relying on the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022, the Federal High Court in Enugu affirmed Mr Mbah’s candidacy as the duly nominated governorship flag bearer of the PDP.
There are precedents even from the Supreme Court where a political party is not allowed to challenge the nomination of candidates in another political party.
The Electoral Act 2022 forbids such suits.
However, lawyers and their litigants have stubbornly pursued party nominations up to the apex court, drawing the court’s ire.
Nigeria’s electoral commission, INEC, had declared Mr Mbah as the winner of the Enugu governorship election after he polled 160,895 votes to beat his closest challenger, Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party who garnered 157,552 votes.
The poll results showed Frank Nweke Jnr. of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA came third with 17,983 votes, while Mr Nnaji trailed with 14,575 votes.
Mr Nnaji’s grouse was that Mr Mbah at the time of his nomination was not qualified to vie for elective due to allegations around certificate forgery.
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