The Abure-led Labour Party (LP) has declared that it will appeal the Enugu Governorship tribunal judgement to the Supreme Court.
The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Enugu State on Thursday upheld the election of Governor Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the March 18 governorship election.
The three-member panel of the tribunal led by Justice Kudirat Murayo dismissed the petitions of the Labour Party and its candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, insisting that they were unable to provide sufficient evidence to support their claims.
A statement issued by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh, described the court decision as absurd, stating that it depicts the reality of the country’s judiciary.https://d77af032cf78de5ea2feaffa5d282d08.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html
It read: “Labour Party today watched in horror as another absurdity played out in Enugu where the Governorship and House of Assembly Tribunal dismissed allegations of NYSC certificate forgery against the PDP candidate, Peter Mbah.
“The tribunal also struck out our party’s allegation of over-voting, bypass of BVAS while insisting that Peter Mbah was duly elected as governor by majority of lawful and valid votes cast at the election.
“Though we will seek redress at the Supreme Court immediately knowing that justice was miscarried in this particular case and that the tribunal judgement can not stand, however we are worried about the level of degeneration in our judiciary where ridiculous rulings are frequently churned out from the hallowed temple of justice.”
LP claimed its case before the tribunal was that of a clear case of electoral robbery.
According to the party, “We pointed out that in Enugu, after the collation of 16 LGAs out of the 17 LGAs of the state, our candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, was leading with over 11,000 votes, surprisingly, the PDP in Enugu, working in cahoots with the INEC, shockingly and provocatively wrote and awarded to the PDP a whopping 30,000 votes at Nkanu East LGA, the LGA of the PDP candidate.
It further claimed that the figures from the INEC BVAS im Nkanu East LGA recorded a total number of 15,000 accredited voters on Election Day, but that when votes were declared, the PDP was allocated a total number of 30,350 votes while a total number of 1,855 was credited to the Labour Party.
“So, we asked how INEC could have turned out over 33,000 votes in a place where only about 15,000 voters were accredited.
“We had also asked the tribunal to disqualify the PDP candidate for presenting a fake NYSC certificate. The athourity of NYSC confirmed that the PDP candidate absconded from service and that the certificate he parades was not issued by them. Doesn’t that seems like an open and close case, yet the tribunal saw nothing in a clear case of electoral forgery and perjury.
“In the wake of this judgement, we were aware of a series of visits made by Mba to Aso Rock and we also took note of his level of confidence lately. However, we had ignored these ominous signs while hoping that the blind Lady of Justice will act impartially but we are shocked with this judicial endorsement.
“Labour Party may be weeping today for this travesty of justice meted at us but we do not know whose turn it would be tomorrow. Evil they say triumph when the righteous keep silent and when they refuse to condemn it.” LP said.
The party assarted that the judiciary has a key role to play in keeping the country’s democracy alive and safe while calling concerted effort by all well meaning Nigerians to guide the all important arm of government and ensure that it is not captured by the state.
“We must all rise to save our democracy.” It added.Credit: Daily Sun