Court of appeal sacks Enugu PDP represented member and declares LP elected

Simon Atigwe, the House of Representatives member for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State’s Igboeze North/Udenu Federal constituency, was dismissed by the Court of Appeal located in Enugu.

The Election Petition Tribunal had previously ruled that Dennis Ndubisi Agbo of the Labour Party was the legitimate winner of the election, and this decision by the Appeal Court upheld that result.

Because Atigwe of the PDP did not receive a majority of the legitimate votes cast in the rerun election, the appellate court ruled that Atigwe was not legitimately elected.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, proclaimed Simon Atigwe the victor of the rerun election on February 3, 2024. Dennis Agbo, the candidate for the Labour Party, disputed this ruling at the Tribunal. The Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, contended during the trial that the PDP candidate received 23,863 votes, 637 fewer than the Labour Party candidate, who received 23,226 votes, according to the Commission.

The Courts, however, disapproved and acknowledged the existence of a computational error. Agbo, who had been dismissed by the appellate court after winning the election on February 25, 2023, went to the tribunal to contest Atigwe’s declaration.

The Appeal Panel ruled in their decision that the 2,000 extra votes added to the PDP candidate and restored the votes of 25th February 2023 of 14,229 for the PDP and 18,870 for the LP candidate.

Additionally, it concluded that Atigwe Simon Chukwuemeka was not legitimately elected based on the valid votes cast, since Dennis Ndubisi Agbo of the Labour Party received 23,221 votes, while Atigwe of the PDP received 21,863 votes. Consequently, the Certificate of Return granted to Atigwe of the PDP ought to be rescinded and given to Agbo of the Labour Party.