A TRANSPORTER, PRINCE EMEKA MAMAH, DRAGS HON. DENIS AGBO TO COURT OF APPEAL

Prince Dr. Emeka Mamah

Report reaching the newsroom of the best-selling and most sought after online business and political news and articles publishers, Tectono Business Review, has it that the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ifesinachi Group of Companies who was the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for Igbo-Eze North/Udenu Federal Constituency election in Enugu State in the last election, Prince Dr. Emeka Mamah, has dragged the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) candidate and member of the Federal House of Representatives, Hon. Dennis Agbo, to the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu, urging the appellate court to return him as duly-elected representative for the constituency.

We gathered that Prince Mamah, who is an Honorary Doctorate Degree holder from an Irish University, is specifically seeking the court to set aside the judgment of the election petition tribunal delivered in EPT/ENU/NASS/HR/11/2015 on October 9, 2015, which awarded victory to Hon. Agbo, the PDP candidate.

While addressing journalists in Abuja last Saturday, the counsel to Prince Mamah, Barrister Abel Ozioko, argued that the justices at the election tribunal erred in law when they held that the appellants (Prince Mamah and APGA) did not discharge any type of burden of proof the law places on them beyond reasonable doubt.

The legal luminary insisted that the petitioners proved the allegation of over-voting on the balance of probabilities, adding that his client and first petitioner ought to have been declared winner based on the lawful votes cast in the remaining polling units where the results were not nullified.

He stated that the petitioners prayed the court to give an order nullifying the results in 27 polling units for the votes cast being in excess of accredited voters in the stated polling units.

In his own words: “There are 30 wards in the constituency, we are challenging the result in 27 of the thirty wards.”

According to Barrister Ozioko, the petitioners also prayed the appellate court to determine whether upon nullification of all the results in the polling units, the appellants scored the majority of lawful votes cast in the remaining wards and polling units in the constituency where lawful votes were cast and not disputed by parties.

He said: Part of the prayers is a consequential order compelling the first respondent to refund/pay to the first petitioner all allowances, honorarium, salaries, emoluments, perquisites or entitlements howsoever described that accrued to the first respondent as a result of being in the House of Representatives during the pendency of this petition at the Tribunal and this Honourable Court.”

“I have confidence in the judiciary and I hope to see the judiciary backing up the reform that the former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) boss, Professor Attahiru Jega brought to our electoral system, otherwise, we will be going back to square one. The fact that we lost in court of first instance does not erode our confidence in the judiciary to right the wrongs. I think cases should not be dismissed hanging on technicalities but should be determined on merit so that a petitioner can have a sense of satisfaction that his case has been heard on merit.”