uThe Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, has reserved judgment on the petitions challenging the election of Governor Peter Mbah to a date to be fixed after parties in the matter adopted their written addresses.
During the resumed proceedings of the Tribunal, Justice Akano who heads the tribunal said he would communicate to the parties the date of the judgement.
The Labour Party (LP) candidate, Chijioke Edeoga is challenging the election of Peter Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the validly elected governor by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the March 18 governorship elections in the State.
The petitioners (Edeoga and Labour Party) were present in court while Mbah was represented by his counsels on Wednesday.
INEC is the first respondent in the petition, and Mbah and PDP are listed as the second and third respondents respectively.
Mbah’s counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, while adopting his address told the tribunal to dismiss the LP’s petitions for lacking in merit and a mere academic exercise.
Similarly, PDP’s counsel, Anthony Ani, SAN, countered the argument of the petitioners as vague and lacking in evidence.
The LP and its governorship candidate’s lead counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, told the tribunal to uphold the position of his clients and grant the reliefs sought by his client.
He said because it has been established beyond any reasonable doubt that Mr Peter Mbah was at the time of the election not constitutionally qualified to contest for the election having presented a forged certificate of national service to INEC.
