By John Obi
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The Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu has nullified the election of Hon. Simeon Atigwe, the member representing Igboeze North/ Udenu Federal Constituency.
Delivering Judgement, the court upheld the ruling of the House of Representatives tribunal stating that Atigwe was not duly elected based on valid votes cast during the re-run election and affirmed Hon. Dennis Nnamdi Agbo of the Labour party as winner.
Agbo was previously sworn in after the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC declared him the winner of the February 23 House of Representatives election but was ousted following a re-run election on February 3,2024 which led to the declaration of Atigwe as winner.
In the re-run,INEC declared that Atigwe received 23,863 votes while Agbo got 23,226 votes.
Agbo however contested the decision,He argued that re-run election was marked by irregularities including incorrect vote counts and non – compliance with the electoral act leading to the sacking of Atigwe by the Appeal Court on Wednesday.
In their ruling the tribunal, led by Justice H.N. Kunaza, held that Agbo’s petition was valid and declared him the true winner of the Igbo Eze North/Udenu Federal constituency. The panel invalidated 2,000 votes that had been erroneously added to the PDP candidate, restoring the original vote counts of 14,229 for the PDP and 28,870 for Agbo.
The panel concluded that Atigwe was not elected based on valid votes, and declared Agbo the winner with 23,221 votes against Atigwe’s 21,863.
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