The Court of Appeal in Enugu has removed Hon. Simon Atigwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from his position in the House of Representatives, representing the Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency.
This decision follows the court’s ruling that upheld the Election Petition Tribunal’s earlier judgment, which declared Hon. Dennis Nnamdi Agbo of the Labour Party (LP) as the rightful winner of the rerun election held on February 3, 2024.
The three-member panel of the appellate court, chaired by Justice H.N. Kunaza, delivered a unanimous judgment on Wednesday, dismissing Atigwe’s appeal on the grounds that it lacked merit. The court ruled that Atigwe was not duly elected by valid votes in the rerun, declaring Agbo as the legitimate winner.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had initially declared that Atigwe of the PDP secured 23,863 votes, surpassing Agbo’s 23,226 votes. However, Agbo, who had originally won the February 25, 2023 election before being removed by an earlier court ruling, contested Atigwe’s declaration at the tribunal, citing irregularities such as incorrect result computation and significant non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
Justice Kunaza’s judgment nullified the 2,000 votes wrongly added to the PDP’s tally and reinstated the original February 25, 2023 results, which showed Agbo with 28,870 votes against Atigwe’s 14,229. The court ordered the withdrawal of the certificate of return issued to Atigwe and instructed that it be given to Agbo, whose final vote count stood at 23,221 compared to Atigwe’s 21,863.
