Judiciary
THE People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) has rejected judgement of the Ebonyi Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abakaliki which upheld Gov. Dave Umahi’s victory in the April 9 governorship election.
The tribunal, headed by Justice A. B Abdulkareem, on Sept. 2, struck out the suit by the PDM challenging the election of Umahi at the poll.
Chief Aja Agha, PDM’s governorship candidate in the election at a press conference in Abakaliki on Wednesday, said that he and the party rejected the judgement and vowed to challenge the outcome at the Appeal Court.
Aja, who faulted the judgement described it as a miscarriage of justice and noted that the judgement would not stand appeal.
He said that PDM sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for allegedly excluding its name from the INEC’s result sheet.
He said that the tribunal judgement did not reflect the main issue in contention, adding that the party conducted a valid party primary and his name submitted as the duly nominated governorship candidate for the election.
He said that the party submitted name of its candidate within the stipulated time frame contrary to the tribunal judgement which held that PDM failed to submit the name of the party’s candidate before INEC’s deadline.
“The closing date for submission of parties’ nomination forms was Dec. 17, 2018 and our party submitted on Oct. 6, 2018.
“If our party did not meet the deadline for submission of nomination forms, why then did INEC include the party’s name and logo in the ballot papers?
“We want to tell Ebonyi people and our supporters that the judgement is not acceptable by our party and by myself.
“The judgement is a miscarriage and will not stand the test of appeal and we are ready to challenge the verdict even if it means going to the Supreme Court.
“For the tribunal to declare that I submitted my nomination form outside INEC’s time table and that I was not duly nominated did not reflect the ground for our petition.
“We went to tribunal to seek justice for the wrongful exclusion of our party’s name and logo from the INEC result sheet.
“We secured more votes than the combined votes of PDP and APC in the election and our scores were not imputed to us.
“We prayed the tribunal to declare PDM rightful winner of the governorship election in Ebonyi or on the alternative nullify the election and order a fresh poll in the state.
“So, our party and myself are ready to fight the alleged wrong judgement and we appeal to our supporters to be calm and law abiding as justice will certainly prevail,” Agha said.
Meanwhile, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the tribunal Chairman, Abdukareem said in his judgement on Monday that PDM failed to prove that it conducted its primaries in line with provisions of the Electoral Act.
He also noted that there was no evidence to show that PDM submitted its candidate’s name to INEC before the deadline for parties to do so. (NAN)
– Sept. 4, 2019 @ 11:55 GMT |
Tags: Ebonyi: PDM faults Umahi’s victory heads to A’Court
