Appeal Court affirms Obiano's election as Anambra Gov

>Dismisses four petitions for lacking merit

A five-man panel of Appeal Court Justices in Enugu, yesterday,
dismissed all the four appeals filed against the judgment of Anambra
State Election Petition Tribunal which upheld the election of Dr
Willie Obiano as duly elected governor of Anambra State, a
declarartion made by the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) on the November 16 governorship election.

The presiding Justice, Mohammed Lawal Garba, while delivering lead
judgment on the appeal filed by All Progressives Congress (APC)
governorship candidate, Sen Chris Ngige, resolved the 11 issues
sought against the appellant and subsequently dismissed the appeal for
incompetence and lack of merit and awarded N50,000 cost against the
appellant.

On the second appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party's (PDP)
candidate, Tony Nwoye, against INEC and Governor Willie Obiano,
another member of the panel, Justice Ejembi Eko, dismissed the appeal
for lack of. Merit and awarded N50, 000 cost in favour of the
respondent.

The third appeal filed by PDP suffered the same fate of dismissal as
Justice Akeju I. O, in his lead judgment, awarded N30, 000 cost
against appellant.

On the fourth appeal filed by Chike Obidigbo of All Progressives Grand
Alliance, Justice Tijani Abubakar, in his lead judgment dismissed the
petition for not being meritorious and awarded N50, 000 cost against
the appellant.

The five-man panel was unanimous in the four judgments, thereby
affirming the ruling of the Justice Ishaq Bello-led Anambra Election
Petition Tribunal, delivered on 24th June, 2014.

In a quick reaction, the National Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh,
who led other chieftains of the party to court, expressed happiness
and praised the judiciary, saying over 95 percent of judicial officers
in Nigeria have decided to uphold the principle of the law, which the
ruling represents.

"We were not in any doubt that the petitions will be dismissed because
our candidate, Chief Willie Obiano, won that election with landslide.
We also said during the announcement of the result that the election
was peaceful and fair."

While sympathising with the petitioners, he advised them to
congratulate Obiano and join hands with him in developing Anambra
which he is already doing.

He expressed confidence that the party will still win should the
appellants decide to approach Supreme court following favourable
judgments by the two lower courts.