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The Anambra State Election Tribunal,
sitting in Awka, the state capital, has once again upheld the
re-election of the state governor, Peter Obi, as declared by the
Independent National Electoral Commission on February 7 this year.

Victor Anigbata, the candidate of the
National Solidarity Democratic Party (NSDP) in the February 6, 2010,
gubernatorial election in the state, had filed a suit at the tribunal
against the election of Obi and urged it to nullify the outcome of that
election on the grounds that it was not in compliance with the
electoral Act and the constitution.

But the five-man tribunal panel headed
by Pius Damulak, last weekend, in a unanimous judgment read by one of
them, Michael Akoja, which lasted for about eight hours, held that the
petitioner woefully failed to prove his case and thus dismissed the
petition for lack of merit.

The tribunal also held that Mr Obi’s
election fully complied with the Electoral Law 2006, as well as with
the 1999 constitution of Nigeria.

According to the judges, Mr Obi’s
declaration and return by INEC as winner of the gubernatorial poll,
contrary to the petitioners’ claims, was in compliance with the
provisions of section 179 of the constitution, especially sub-sections
2 and 3.

The judges also held that the
petitioners failed to prove that the election was substantially marred
by irregularities as they claimed, as according to them, the
petitioners brought only two witnesses who testified in the court and
there was no eligible voter who came to court to say he went to vote on
the election day but was prevented from voting, nor did the petitioners
tender in the court any voters’ register to prove their claim that the
register used in the conduct of the election did not contain names of
the registered voters in the state.

Abuse of process

The judges declared
that they were bound by their earlier decision in a similar petition
brought by the Hope Democratic Party’s (HDP) deputy governorship
candidate, Mike Okoye, wherein the latter challenged the outcome of the
election.

Contrary to the
petitioners’ claims, the judges held that Mr Obi, who contested the
election under the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) platform,
secured a quarter of the total valid votes cast in 15 out of the 21
local government areas of the state, meaning that he met the spread as
required under the constitution.

Shortly before
announcing that the judgement would be read by Mr Akoja, chairman of
the tribunal, Pius Damulak, had dismissed a motion on notice brought by
the petitioner urging the tribunal to abandon the petition.

The tribunal held
that it was an abuse of court process for a party to apply that a judge
should discontinue in a matter which date had been fixed for judgment
as, according to them, the action amounted to an attempt to arrest the
judgment.

Counsel to the petitioner, Ejike Ekwunze, said he was satisfied with the judgement.