Tribunal sacks Enugu Reps member, declares LP candidate winner

The House of Representatives tribunal has nullified the election of Rt. Hon. Simon Atigwe, the representative for Igboeze North/Udenu Federal Constituency.

Hon. Atigwe, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was initially declared the winner of a re-run election held on February 3rd, 2024, by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,.

He reportedly secured 23,863 votes, narrowly defeating Hon. Dennis Agbo of the Labour Party, LP, who garnered 23,226 votes.

Hon. Agbo, who had originally won the February 25th, 2023 election but was later removed by an appellate court, challenged Atigwe’s victory, citing discrepancies in the result computation and substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act during the re-run.

On Wednesday, August 14th, the tribunal, led by Justice H.N. Kunaza, ruled in favour of Agbo, declaring him the rightful winner.

The panel voided the 2,000 additional votes awarded to the PDP candidate and reinstated the results from the February 25th election, which showed Agbo with 28,870 votes and Atigwe with 14,229 votes.

The tribunal also ordered that the certificate of return issued to Atigwe be withdrawn and reissued to Hon. Dennis Nnamdi Agbo as the duly elected representative for the constituency.