There was widespread jubilation over the weekend in Igbo Etiti West in Enugu State as the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos set aside the judgement of the Enugu State Election Petition Tribunal which had nullified the election of Williams Amuka of the Labour Party.
In a unanimous judgement delivered and presided over by Hon. Justice Bolaji Yusuf, the three-man panel of justices found merit in Amuka’s Appeal and upheld his declaration by INEC as the eventual winner of the March 18 House of Assembly election.
Reacting to the judgment, in a statement, one of the counsels to Hon. Williams Amuka, Chibuzor Ezike Esq., thanked the Court of Appeal for doing substantial justice.
He said, “It was shocking and surprising that the Tribunal, after resolving all three grounds of objection raised by Hon. Amuka’s legal team and holding that it had no jurisdiction to entertain the petition by Ugwu Charles Chukwuebuka and the PDP, turned 180 degrees and relied on a document that was rejected, that was neither pleaded nor before the court to disqualify our client.
“The decision of the Court of Appeal is commendable, and it has brought an end to the long journey of litigation which commenced right from when Amuka won his primary election.”
As news of the judgment spread, there was spontaneous, carnival-like celebration all over Igbo Etiti with motorcycle riders forming a convoy and riding all around the Local Government Headquarters of Ogbede, blaring their horns.
Market women were also seen singing and dancing in the market.
It would be recalled that on September 30th, the Enugu State Election Petition Tribunal had nullified the election of Hon. Amuka of the Labour Party while relying on a document the same Tribunal had ruled would not be admissible before the tribunal.
The document, an affidavit of fact, was not pleaded, neither was it listed nor front-loaded by the petitioner.
It was this document that the Tribunal had relied upon to nullify Amuka’s election mandate and also disqualify him from the election even when it had not been presented before the Tribunal and hence was not supposed to be in the Tribunal’s records.
