Agbo had earlier won the February 25, 2023 election before his sack by the appellate court.
By Ife Osemedua
365Daily – The Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu has affirmed the ruling of the House of Representatives tribunal which sacked Hon. Simon Atigwe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the member representing Igboeze North/Udenu federal constituency.
In a judgement delivered unanimously by the three member-panel and read out by the chairman of the panel ,Justice Ekanem, on Wednesday, October 10, 2024, the court held that Atigwe was not duly elected by the valid votes cast in the rerun election.
It, therefore, declared Dennis Agbo of the Labour Party as the rightful winner of the February, 3 2024 re-run election.
It would be recalled that Hon. Atigwe was declared the winner of the re-run election held on February 3rd, 2024 following the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC)’s declaration of the PDP’s candidate 23,863 votes to Agbo’s 23,226 votes.
Agbo, who had earlier won the February 25, 2023 election, before his sack by the appellate court, proceeded to the tribunal to challenge Atigwe’s declaration with the argument that the election was marred by wrong computation of result, substantial non compliance to the Electoral Act, among others.
The Justice H N Kunaza-led tribunal on August 14 found that the petition had merit and declared Agbo the winner of Igbo Eze North/ Udenu Federal constituency. It also declared invalid, null and void, the 2000 votes added to the PDP candidate and restored the votes of February 2023 election of 14229 for the PDP and 28870 for the LP candidate.