The National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunals sitting in Enugu State has struck out the petition filed by Senator Chimaroke Nnamani of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), challenging the election of Senator Kelvin Chukwu of the Labour Party.
Nnamani, who was former governor of Enugu State between 1999 and 2007 represented Enugu East Senatorial district in the 9th Assembly under the platform of the PDP.
Despite winning the ticket of PDP to re-contest the Senatorial seat in the February 25 national assembly election, he declared support for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu against his party’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Although, PDP expelled him, he still contested under the platform and lost to the Labour Party candidate, Kelvin Chukwu.
READ ALSO: PDP Crisis: ‘Wike Has Unleashed Dogs Of War And We Will Not Sit Back’ – Obaseki
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Chukwu as 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 alleged that the election was marred by over-voting, irregularities, election malpractices and non-compliance with the electoral guidelines.
The founder of the Ebeano political family also urged the court to declare him the rightful winner of the election or declare as invalid the results of the polls.
READ ALSO: PDP Rejects Benue Gov Tribunal Judgment, Heads To Appeal
Delivering its ruling on Wednesday, the tribunal upheld Senator Kelvin Chukwu’s victory.
The tribunal also awarded a cost of N500,000 against the petitioners in favour of the three respondents, Kelvin Chukwu, Labour Party and INEC.
The three-man panel led by Justice Nusirat I. Umar unanimously dismissed the petition for being vague, lacking in merit, incompetent, generic and academic exercise.
Trending Video Of The Day;
Photo Credit: Getty
