The Supreme Court, on Friday, December 12, affirmed the election victory of Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru of Ebonyi State.

The court, in its lead judgment that was delivered by Justice Tijjani Abubakar, dismissed two separate appeals that sought to sack Nwifuru of the All Progressives Congress, APC, from office.

It held that the appeals were “patently unmeritorious.”

 The appeals, which challenged the return of Nwifuru as the valid winner of the governorship poll that held in the state on March 1 ,.8, 2023, were lodged by candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Ifeanyi Odii, as well as his counterpart from the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Prof. Benard Odoh.

The Supreme Court held that it found no reason to set aside the concurrent verdicts of the Ebonyi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, which upheld Nwifuru’s election.

Recall that the Independent National Election Commission, INEC, declared that Nwifuru polled a total of 199,131 votes across the 13 Local Government Areas of the state to beat his closest rival, Dr. Odii of the PDP, who scored 80,191 votes.

Dissatisfied with the outcome of the poll, both candidates of the PDP and APGA approached the tribunal to challenge the outcome of the election.

The petitioners, among other things, sought Nwifuru’s disqualification on the grounds of certificate forgery and his alleged ineligibility to stand for the election.

The petitioners told the tribunal that Nwifuru’s election victory was characterized by corrupt practices, alleging that there was substantial non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022.

Besides, they argued that Nwifuru did not validly resign from the PDP before he was nominated as the governorship candidate of the APC.

According to the petitioners, Nwifuru, being a PDP member at all material times before the governorship poll, was not eligible under Section 177(c) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, to have been sponsored by the APC to contest as its flag-bearer.

They told the tribunal that prior to the governorship contest, Nwifuru, who was elected into the Ebonyi State House of Assembly in 1999, served as Speaker while on the ticket of the PDP until May 2023.