The Ebonyi State Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja will deliver its judgement on Wednesday, September 27, on the petitions against the election of Governor Francis Nwifuru.
The Independent National Election Commission(INEC) declared Nwifuru of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election, which was held on March 18, 2023.
Nwifuru polled a total of 199,131 votes across the 13 Local Government Areas of the state to beat his closest rival, Chukwuma Ifeanyi Odii of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 80,191 votes.
But Odii and his party PDP and the second runners-up, Bernard Odoh, and his party, All Progressive Grand Alliance(APGA), rejected the result and challenged it at the tribunal.
Odoh, in his petition, is seeking Nwifuru’s disqualification on the grounds of Certificate forgery and ineligibility to stand for the election and asked the tribunal to retrieve the Certificate of return issued to him.
The APGA candidate said Nwifuru, at the time of the election, was still a member of the PDP and, as such, was not eligible to be sponsored for the election by the APC.
He averred that Nwifuru therefore was not qualified to contest the election to the office of the Governor of Ebony State as he belonged to two political parties, which he argued was unconstitutional.
Odoh further alleged that Nwifuru was not qualified to stand for the election as he allegedly submitted a fake certificate to INEC and prayed to the Tribunal to nullify the said election to the office of the Governor of Ebony State held on March 18, 2023.
He also urged the Tribunal to order a second election pursuant to Sections 179(3) and (4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended into the office of the Governor of Ebonyi State.
Odoh further urged the Tribunal to declare that the said fresh election should be held between the two candidates who scored the highest number of votes in the March 18 election.
