The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate for the 2015 election into the House of Representatives for Igboeze North/Udenu constituency of Enugu State, Prince Emeka Mamah, has appealed against the decision of the National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal, his
counsel, Mr. Abel Ozioko, announced on Sunday.
The tribunal upheld the election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Hon. Dennis Agbo.
Mamah had contested for the PDP ticket for the same post before defecting to APGA to contest against the candidate of his former party.
Ozioko, who spoke to journalists in Abuja, said that the petition was filed to challenge the declaration made by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), citing unlawful votes in 27 our of 30 wards of the constituency.
Ozioko prayed the court to set aside the judgment of the election petition tribunal delivered in EPT/ENU/NASS/HR/11/2015 on October 9 which upheld the victory of Agbo, arguing that the tribunal erred in law.
“Of course INEC declared as the winner of the election and return him to represent the constituency in the National Assembly, being aggrieved the petitioners briefed us and we filed the petition.
“The main ground upon which we are challenging the petition is that there were unlawful votes. What I mean by unlawful votes are votes that are gathered not by the due process of law. There are step-by-step procedure prescribed for the casting of votes in any election, if you breached that procedure, no matter how well conducted the election is, it is bound to be nullified,” Ozioko said.
The counsel to the petitioner further explained that the due process was not followed in the election with exception of three wards in that constituency where due process was followed.
The lawyer said petitioner is contesting the rest of the election which was why the petition was filed.
Despite losing at the tribunal, Ozioko expressed absolute confidence in the judiciary to rewrite the perceived wrong.
He said, “Especially in recent times, the judiciary has been doing enough.
“It has been playing a leading role in this new democratic dispensation in Nigeria, starting with the case of Amechi and INEC and all through this time there are innovations that INEC brought in the 2015 elections.”
“I have the confidence in the judiciary. The fact that the case was lost at the tribunal does not erode the confidence i have in the judiciary. There is a structure, the appellate court are there because there could be a miscarriage of justice,” Ozioko said.
