Labour Party has described the verdict of the Enugu governorship tribunal as ‘absurd.’
In a statement on Thursday, the party’s national chairman, Julius Abure, said what played out at the tribunal was a miscarriage of justice.
The tribunal had dismissed allegations of NYSC certificate forgery against the PDP candidate and incumbent governor, Peter Mbah.
The tribunal also struck out the Labour Party’s allegation of the over-voting bypass of BVAS while insisting that Mbah was duly elected as governor by the majority of lawful and valid votes cast at the election.
Abure said:
“Though we will seek redress at the Supreme Court immediately, knowing that justice was miscarried in this particular case and that the tribunal judgement can not stand, we are worried about the level of degeneration in our judiciary, where ridiculous rulings are frequently churned out from the hallowed temple of justice.
“Our case before the tribunal was a clear case of electoral robbery where we pointed out that in Enugu, after the collation of 16 LGAs out of the 17 LGAs of the state, our candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, was leading with over 11,000 votes, surprisingly, the PDP in Enugu, working in cahoots with the INEC, shockingly and provocatively wrote and awarded to the PDP a whopping 30,000 votes at Nkanu East LGA, the LGA of the PDP candidate.
“We pointed out that the figures from the INEC BVAS, Nkanu East LGA, recorded a total number of 15,000 accredited voters on election day. However, when votes were declared, the PDP was allocated a total number of 30,350 votes, while a total number of 1,855 was credited to the Labour Party.
“So, we asked how could INEC have turned out over 33,000 votes in a place where only about 15,000 voters were accredited.
“We had also asked the tribunal to disqualify the PDP candidate for presenting a fake NYSC certificate.
“The authority of NYSC confirmed that the PDP candidate absconded from service and that the certificate he parades was not issued by them.
“Doesn’t that seem like an open and closed case, yet the tribunal saw nothing in a clear case of electoral forgery and perjury.”
Abure alleged that in the wake of the judgement, Governor Mbah had embarked on a series of visits to Aso Rock, “and we also took note of his level of confidence lately.”
“However, we had ignored these ominous signs while hoping that the blind Lady of Justice would act impartially, but we are shocked by this judicial endorsement.
“Labour Party may be weeping today for this travesty of justice meted at us, but we do not know whose turn it will be tomorrow. Evil, they say, triumphs when the righteous keep silent and when they refuse to condemn it,” he added.
