• Affirms Nwifuru’s victory

Ebonyi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in the National Judicial Institute (NJI), Abuja, has dismissed petitions brought before it by the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chukwuma Odi, and that of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Prof. Bernard Odoh, challenging the election of Ogbonna Nwifuru as governor of Ebonyi State, saying that their petitions are lacking in merit.

Odi and Odoh have approached the tribunal after the declaration of Nwifuru as winner of the February 25 governorship election in the state, asking it to nullify Nwifuru’s victory and declare them winner. They noted that Nwifuru was not a valid member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the time he contested the election.

In their ruling, the three-man panel, led by Justice A I Ogunmoye, threw out the two petitions for lacking in merit, saying that Nwifuru was a valid member of APC when he contested the election having resigned from his former party, PDP.

The tribunal also ruled that the issue of nomination of party candidates was a pre-election matter that can only be entertained by a high court.