Tribunal Dismisses Petition Against Abaribe

The National and State Houses of Assembly Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Umuahia has upheld the election of Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe as the duly elected lawmaker representing Abia South.

The tribunal dismissed the petition challenging his re-election filed by the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and its candidate, Mr Chris Nkwonta.

The duo had approached the court to nullify the declaration of Abaribe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner.

In the petition, they claimed that the Feb. 23 poll was marred with irregularities, adding that Nkwonta won the majority of the lawful votes cast.

Delivering the judgement, a member of the three member panel, Justice Wasiu Animahun faulted the decision of the petitioners to rely on card reader accreditation.  

He noted that the machine could not take the place of the voters’ register as it was only complimentary.

The panel held that if the number of over-voting claimed by the petitioners was removed from the figure with which Abaribe was declared winner, he would still maintain a reasonable margin of lead over the petitioners.

The panel, therefore, dismissed the petition for lack of merit.

It also awarded the cost of N500, 000 against the petitioners in favour of the second (Abaribe) and third PDP respondents.

Counsel for Abaribe, Uche Ihemamba, in reaction to the judgement described it as being in tandem with the current positions of the law.