The Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal on Thursday confirmed Mr Peter Mbah as the duly elected governor of the state.
The three-member tribunal headed by Justice Kudirat Morayo Akano, while delivering judgment, said the petitioners failed to substantiate any of their numerous claims.
Specifically, the tribunal ruled that the petitioner, Mr Edeoga of the Labour Party (LP) failed to prove his allegation that the PDP candidate, Mr Mbah, submitted a forged certificate to INEC
It held that Sections 177 and 138 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) states: “A person shall be qualified for election to the office of Governor of a State if;
(a) he is a citizen of Nigeria by birth;
(b) he has attained the age of thirty-five years;
(c) he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that political party; and
(d) he has been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent.”
Akano, therefore, ruled that Mbah was qualified to contest the election even without submitting any NYSC discharge certificate, adding that a Senior Secondary School Certificate or its equivalent is a minimum academic qualification for election for the office of the governor in line with the constitution.
The court said: “Assuming that the NYSC discharge certificate of the second Respondent as claimed by the Petitioners was forged, is the NYSC Certificate a qualification to contest for Governor in Nigeria according to the constitution? The answer is no.”
Persecondnews earlier reported that Peter Mbah won the 2023 governorship election in the state, after polling 160,895 votes to defeat his closest challenger, the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, who scored 157,552 votes.
The candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Frank Nweke Jnr., a former Minister of Information, garnered 17,983 votes to come a distant third, while the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Uche Nnaji, placed fourth, with 14,575 votes.
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