Barrister Donatus Onuigwe V. Declan Mbadiwe Emelumba & Ors. (2008)
LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report
GALADIMA, J.C.A.
This appeal is against the judgment of the Governorship and Legislative Houses Election Tribunal, Imo State, holden at Owerri and delivered on Saturday, the 8th day of September, 2007. The tribunal upheld the election of the 1st respondent as the member representing Oru West State Constituency in the Imo State House of Assembly.
The petitioner, now the appellant, at the Tribunal was a candidate at the April 14, 2007, election into the Imo State House of Assembly for Oru West Constituency on the platform of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).
After the election, the 1st respondent was declared winner and returned as the member representing Oru West State Constituency in the Imo State House of Assembly. Dissatisfied with the result, the petitioner filed his petition at the trial tribunal stating the grounds on which he relied as follows:
“1. The 1st respondent was disqualified from contesting the election.
- The 1st respondent was not duly returned by a majority of lawful votes cast at the election,
- The purported election was invalid by reason of corrupt practice and/or non-compliance with the provisions or the Electoral Act, 2006.”
The petitioner/appellant’s case was that the 1st respondent was not qualified to contest the election of 14/4/2007 in that he was Indicted by an Executive Panel of Inquiry set up by Imo State House or Assembly and which indictment was accepted by the Imo State Government. It was also the Petitioner’s case that the election was marred by violence, thuggery, snatching and carting away of ballot boxes and various irregularities, corrupt practices and noncompliance with the Electoral Act, 2006.
The respondents’ case was that, there are 118 polling units in the Oru West State Constituency and that there was due, peaceful, orderly, free and fair election in 60 out of the said 118 polling units and further that the non-compliance in 58 polling units did not substantially affect the election. It was also the case of the 1st respondent that he was not indicted by any court or tribunal or Administrative Panel of Inquiry set up by the Imo State Government.
At the pre-hearing conference, it was alleged that the petitioner/appellant voluntarily abandoned ground 1 and part of ground 3 of the petition relating to the election being invalid by reason of corrupt practices. Various documents were admitted by consent including results in Form EC8A, EC8B and EC8C and the voters’ register for all the wards in the constituency. After the admission of documents, learned counsel to all the parties agreed to dispense with oral evidence. Written addresses were later adopted before the tribunal delivered its judgment on 8/9/2007.
Being dissatisfied with the said tribunal’s judgment, the petitioner filed his Notice of Appeal containing 8 grounds of Appeal dated 28/9/2007. In his brief of argument filed on 15/11/2007, 6 issues were formulated for the determination of the appeal which read as follows:
“Issue No.1:
Whether the honourable trial tribunal was right in holding that the 1st respondent was qualified and duly cleared by INEC to contest the election into the Imo State House of Assembly as a member representing Oru West State Constituency?
Issue No.2:
Is the trial tribunal’s failure to consider exhibit 2 before reaching a decision not a violation of the appellant’s right to fair hearing occasioning a miscarriage of justice?
Issue No.3:
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