Tribunal Ousts Enugu Rep Member, Declares LP Candidate as Winner

A major political development unfolded on Wednesday as the House of Representatives tribunal annulled the election of Simon Atigwe, the member representing Igboeze North/Udenu federal constituency.

The tribunal, led by Justice H N Kunaza, declared Dennis Nnamdi Agbo of the Labour Party (LP) the rightful winner of the rerun election.

Initially, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Atigwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the winner of the February 3rd, 2024 rerun election, with Atigwe polling 23,863 votes against Agbo's 23,226 votes.

However, this decision was contested by Agbo, who had previously won the February 25th, 2023 election but was subsequently displaced by an appellate court ruling.

Agbo's legal team argued that the rerun election was marred by "wrong computation of results and substantial non-compliance to the electoral act." The tribunal found merit in these arguments, leading to a pivotal ruling on August 14th, 2024.

Justice Kunaza's panel declared the additional 2000 votes allocated to Atigwe as "invalid, null and void," thereby restoring the original vote counts from the February 25th, 2023 election, which were 14,229 for the PDP and 28,870 for the LP candidate, Rt. Hon Dennis Agbo.

The tribunal concluded that Atigwe was not duly elected by the valid votes cast, as the corrected vote tally showed Agbo winning with 23,221 votes compared to Atigwe's 21,863 votes. Consequently, the tribunal ordered that the certificate of return issued to Atigwe be withdrawn and reissued to Agbo.