Anambra Election: Appeal Court Rules On Battle Of Ubah Brothers

Sen. Ifeanyi Ubah

The Court of Appeal, Enugu Division, on Tuesday, affirmed the election of Sen. Ifeanyi Ubah of Young Progressive Party (YPP) as Senator representing Anambra South.

Justice I.M. Salawu in two separate judgments dismissed the appeals filed by Chief Chris Ubah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Sen. Andy Ubah of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

NAN reports that the National and State Houses of Assembly Elections Petitions Tribunal in Awka had in its judgment on Sept. 9, affirmed Ifeanyi as duly elected.

However, the Ubah brothers approached the appellate court on grounds of alleged miscarriage of justice by the tribunal.

Chris in his appeal alleged that the tribunal failed to consider all the exhibits tendered before it while arriving at the judgment.

He urged the court to address the alleged issue of improper accreditation which the trial court allegedly glossed over.

The PDP candidate told the court that the three major documents upon which the election result was anchored such as the card reader, voters register and Form EC8A1 had different figures.

Andy on his part, urged the appellate court to nullify the election for alleged corrupt practices by Ifeanyi.

He alleged that the YPP candidate not only engaged in inducement of voters but also assaulted and coerced the INEC to announce the result of the election.

In the judgment, the court dismissed the submissions of Chris’ witnesses as hearsay evidence.

It also held that the witnesses presented at the trial court by Andy did not discharge their duties.

The court, therefore, aligned itself with the judgment of the trial court and dismissed the appeals as unmeritorious.

The court directed Chris to pay a cost of N50, 000 each to the 1st to 10th respondents and N200, 000 to the 11th respondent.

Andy was directed to pay a cost of N400, 000 to each of the two sets of respondents.