The Court of Appeal in Enugu has reserved judgement in a case filed against the election of Ike Ekweremadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as senator for Enugu West.
Justice I. M. Saluwa, on Monday, reserved judgement on the matter on a date to be communicated to the parties.
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Juliet Ibekaku-Nwagwu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) filed the appeal against the judgement of the election tribunal which upheld Ekweremadu’s victory.
At the resumed hearing, counsel to the appellants, Henry Bello, said that the notice of appeal contained 17 grounds of appeal.
Mr Bello said that the appellants also formulated eight issues for determination in the appeal.
He said that the crux of the appeal was based on non-compliance to the Electoral Act by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in declaring the first respondent as the winner of the poll.
The counsel said that the election was conducted on Feb. 23, 2019, adding that collation started on the same day and had continued until February 24.
He, however, said that while the collation of the Enugu West Senatorial election was still going on, the third respondents announced the result in defiance of the provisions of the electoral act.
On a preliminary objection brought by Anthony Ani, counsel to the second respondent, the PDP, Bello urged the court to strike it out for being academic and lacking in merit.
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“We adopt our replies to the preliminary objection and the three briefs of the appellants in argument of this appeal and urge the court to allow the appeal set aside the judgment of the tribunal,” Bello said.
Counsels to the first and third respondents, Justina Offiah and Emeka Udeogba, after adopting their briefs, urged the court to dismiss the appeal and affirm the decision of the tribunal.
