The Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu has affirmed the decision of the House of Representatives Election Tribunal, removing Rt. Hon. Simon Atigwe as the representative of Igboeze North/Udenu Federal Constituency. The court declared Hon. Dennis Agbo of the Labour Party as the rightful winner of the election.
In its ruling delivered today, the Appeal Court upheld that Atigwe, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was not duly elected by the valid votes cast during the re-run election held earlier this year. The court, therefore, ordered that Agbo, the Labour Party candidate, be recognized as the legitimate winner.
The re-run election held on February 3rd, 2024, initially saw Atigwe declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which announced he polled 23,863 votes, narrowly defeating Agbo, who garnered 23,226 votes. However, Hon. Agbo, who had originally won the February 25th, 2023 election before being ousted by an appellate court, challenged the re-run outcome.
In his petition, Agbo argued that the election was fraught with irregularities, including wrong computation of results and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act. His petition led to a tribunal review, which, on August 14th, ruled in his favor. The Tribunal, headed by Justice H. N. Kunaza, found merit in Agbo's claims and declared him the actual winner of the February 25th, 2023 election.
The tribunal invalidated the 2,000 additional votes awarded to Atigwe and restored the original results of the February election, which had Hon. Agbo with 28,870 votes and Atigwe with 14,229. Consequently, the certificate of return previously issued to Atigwe was ordered to be withdrawn and issued to Agbo.
With the Court of Appeal's decision, Hon. Dennis Agbo will now return to the House of Representatives as the elected representative for Igboeze North/Udenu Federal Constituency
