This followed the unanimous decision of the three-man panel of justices presided over by Hon. Justice Bolaji Yusuf that set aside the judgment of the Enugu state Election Petition Tribunal which nullified the election of Amuka of the opposition Labour Party (LP).
Justice Yusuf, found merit in the Appeal filed by Amuka and upheld his declaration by INEC as the eventual winner of the March 18 House of assembly election.
Reacting to the judgment which elicited wild celebration by hundreds of his constituents, one of the counsel to Amuka, Chibuzor Ezike thanked the Court of appeal for doing substantial justice.
He said, “It was shocking and surprising that the Tribunal after resolving all the three grounds of objection raised by the Hon. Amuka’s legal team and held that it had no jurisdiction to entertain the petition by Ugwu Charles Chukwuebuka and PDP turned 180 degrees and relied on a document that was rejected, that was neither pleaded nor before the Court to disqualify our client.
” The decision of the Court of Appeal is commendable, and it has brought to an end the long journey of litigation which commenced right from when Hon. Amuka won his primary election.”
As news of the judgment hit town, there was spontaneous carnival like celebration all over Igbo Etiti with motorcycle riders forming a convoy and riding all around the Local Government Headquarters of Ogbede blaring their horns. Market women were also seen singing and dancing in the market.
It would be recalled that the Enugu state Election Petition Tribunal had on September 30th nullified the election of Hon. Amuka of Labour Party while relying on a strange document the same Tribunal ruled would not be tenderable before the tribunal.
The said document, an affidavit of fact, was not pleaded, neither was it listed nor front-loaded by the petitioner.
Strangely, it was the said document the Tribunal relied upon to nullify Amuka’s election mandate and also disqualify him from the election even when it was not tendered before the Tribunal and hence was not supposed to be in the file of the Tribunal.
