The Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu State has upheld the ruling of the House of Representatives tribunal sacking the member representing Igboeze North/Udenu federal constituency, Simon Atigwe.
   
The Appeal Court in its judgment yesterday said Atigwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was not duly elected by the valid votes cast in the rerun election and declared Dennis Agbo of the Labour Party (LP) the rightful winner of the election.
   
had earlier been declared the winner of the re-run election held on February 3, 2024, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
INEC said the PDP’s candidate polled 23,863 votes to defeat Agbo whom it said garnered 23,226 votes.
   
Agbo, who had earlier won the February 25, 2023 election but was sacked by the appellate court, proceeded to the tribunal to challenge Atigwe’s declaration. He had argued that the election was marred by wrong computation of results and substantial noncompliance to the electoral act among others.

The three members of the panel in their unanimous judgment upheld the decision of the lower court. They stated that Agbo was the rightful winner and the rightful representative of the people of Igbo Eze North/Udenu Federal constituency and urged INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Atigwe and hand the same over to Agbo.