The Lagos division of the Appeal Court on Wednesday upheld the election of Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere as the duly elected House of Representatives member for Ideato North and South Federal Constituency of Imo State, reversing a previous decision by the election petition tribunal.
Justice Abubakar Babandi Gumel, leading the Appeal Court panel, set aside the tribunal’s ruling that had initially removed Ugochinyere from office.
The tribunal had ruled that Ugochinyere’s party, the PDP, did not have a valid candidate for the election because there were no primaries held in the Federal Constituency.
The tribunal’s judgment, delivered on September 10th, also instructed the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to organize rerun elections in four Wards between the APC and LP candidates
However, in a unanimous decision, Justice Gumel overruled the tribunal’s judgments.
He emphasized that the petition was a pre-election matter, and therefore, the tribunals lacked jurisdiction over pre-election matters.
