Ebonyi guber poll: Tribunal dismisses APGA’s petition against Nwifuru

The Ebonyi State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday dismissed the petition filed by Prof. Benard Odoh, candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, against Governor Francis Nwifuru of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

The three-member panel headed by Justice Lekan Ogunmoye, in the judgement, held that the petitioners lacked the locus standi to institute the action because the issue raised in the suit was an internal affair of the APC.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had declared Nwifuru as winner of the March 18 governorship election in Ebonyi State.

Dissatisfied with the outcome, Odoh and APGA filed the petition marked: EPT/EB/GOV/01/2023 against INEC, Nwifuru and the APC.

They contended that Nwifuru was illegally nominated by the APC because he was still a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as a Speaker of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly when the APC nominated him.

But in its judgement, the tribunal held that APGA failed to appeal a Federal High Court judgement which confirmed the governor’s defection.