Tribunal dismisses Nnamani’s petition, awards costs

The National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Enugu on Wednesday affirmed the election of Senator Kelvin Chukwu of the Labour Party, dismissing the petition by Senator Chimaroke Nnamani of the Peoples Democratic Party and challenging the victory.

The three-member panel led by Justice Nusirat I. Umar held in a unanimous judgment held that Chukwu, who replaced his brother Oyibo Chukwu, who was brutally assassinated a few days before the election, was the duly elected senator representing Enugu East Senatorial District of Enugu State.

Nnamani, who was the former Enugu State governor between 1999 and 2007, represented Enugu East Senatorial District in the 9th Assembly under the platform of the PDP. Despite winning the ticket for the PDP to recontest the senatorial seat in the February 25 National Assembly elections; he declared support for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, against his party’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

Although the PDP expelled him, he still contested under the platform but lost to the LP candidate, Kelvin Chukwu.

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The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Chukwu the winner of the Enugu East Senatorial District poll after scoring 69,000 votes to defeat Nnamani, who polled a total of 49,000 votes.

However, Nnamani had approached the tribunal challenging the election on grounds that the election was marred by over-voting, irregularities, election malpractices, and non-compliance with the electoral guidelines.

The ex-governor, who is the founder of the Ebeano political family, also urged the court to declare him the rightful winner of the election or invalidate the results of the polls.

But delivering its ruling on Wednesday, the tribunal dismissed the petition and awarded a cost of N500,000 against the petitioners in favour of the three respondents, Kelvin Chukwu, LP, and INEC.

In dismissing the petition, the Justices held that the petition was “vague, lacking in merit, incompetent, generic, and an academic exercise.”