The Supreme Court has dismissed two separate appeals against the election of Mr. Francis Nwifuru as Governor of Ebonyi State and affirmed him as duly elected.
The apex court, in its lead judgment delivered by Justice Tijjani Abubakar on Friday, while dismissing the appeals seeking to sack Nwifuru of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said they are “patently unmeritorious.”
The appeals, which challenged Nwifuru as the winner of the March 18, 2023, governorship poll were lodged by candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Ifeanyi Odii, and his counterpart from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Prof. Benard Odoh.
Persecondnews reports that the Appeal Court sitting in Lagos had in November 2023, upheld the election of Nwifuru of the APC as the duly elected governor of Ebonyi State in the March 18 governorship election.
The three-member panel of Justices led by Justice Jummai Hannatu Sankey, in a unanimous judgment, dismissed the appeal filed by Odii of the PDP for lacking in merit.
Justice Sankey, who read the lead judgment, held that the PDP and its candidate lacked the legal right to meddle inp the internal affairs of the APC as it relates to the nomination of candidates for election.
Nwifuru had polled 199,131 votes to defeat Odii of the PDP, who secured 80,191 votes.
The panel resolved all the five issues raised by the PDP candidate in Nwifuru’s favour.
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