The National Assembly Election Petition Tribunal in Enugu state has dismissed a petition filed by Chimaroke Nnamani of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenging the victory of Kelvin Chukwu of the Labour Party (LP) in the March 18 Enugu East senatorial election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Chukwu the winner of the electoral contest.
The LP candidate had polled 69,136 votes to defeat Mr Nnamani, a former governor of Enugu state, who scored 48,701.
Nnamani challenged the declaration of Chukwu as the winner, alleging that the election was marred by over-voting, irregularities, election malpractices and non-compliance with the 2023 Electoral Act.
The former governor of the state, who represented the senatorial district between 2019 and 2023, had urged the tribunal to declare him the winner.
Delivering judgment on Wednesday, the tribunal upheld the victory of Chukwu.
The three-member panel of judges headed by Justice Nusirat Umar held that the petition was “vague, lacking in merit, incompetent, generic and mere academic exercise”.
Nnamani was also asked to pay N500,000 as a cost against him.
Recall that the national leadership of the PDP expelled Nnamani earlier this year, accusing him of anti-party activities.
Nnamani, 63, had openly endorsed Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, even as a member of the PDP.
