The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos has reserved judgement on the appeals file by Hon. Linus Abba Okorie of the Labour Party (LP), and Senator Michael Amah Nnachi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging the judgement of the Ebonyi State National and State Assembly Election Petition Tribunal which affirmed the election of the former governor of Ebonyi State, Engr. David Umahi as the elected Senator for Ebonyi South Senatorial District.
The three man panel of the Appeal Court, heard and adopted the appeal of Senator Nnachi on Monday October 16 and on Friday, October 20th heard and adopted the appeal of Hon. Linus Okorie.
The Panel is Chaired by Hon. Justice Justice B.A. Georgwill also includes, Justice B.B. Aliyu and Justice Folashade-Ojo as members.
Recall that the Ebonyi State Election Petition tribunal which sat in Abuja had dismissed the petitions of the duo not withstanding evidences that the former governor of Ebonyi State had forged the BVAS report of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) he submitted to the tribunal to back his declaration by INEC.
Due to the barrage of petitions and media agitations against many of the election petition tribunals which indicate that the tribunals may have been compromised by top politicians and some governors, the President of the Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem had directed that all appeals emanating from the 17 states in Southern Nigeria be heard in Lagos division of the court while all appeals emanating from the 19 northern states be heard in the Abuja division of the court.
Sources at the Appeal Court told FACTSHEET that the appellate court judges had been directed to speedily adjudicate all the election petition appeals.
