Affirmation of Francis Nwifuru’s Election as Ebonyi Governor by Supreme Court

The Governor of Ebonyi State, Francis Nwifuru, had his election upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday.

Justice Tijjani Abubakar, delivering the judgment, dismissed the appeal by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Chukwuma Odii, describing it as lacking in merit.

Earlier, the Court of Appeal in Lagos had also affirmed Nwifuru’s election as the duly elected Governor of Ebonyi State.

A three-member panel, led by Justice Jummai Sankey, in a unanimous decision, dismissed the appeal filed by Chukwuma Odii of the PDP. The panel resolved all five issues raised against the appellant and dismissed the appeal for lacking merit.

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Justice Sankey held that the PDP and its candidates lacked the legal right to interfere in the internal affairs of the APC regarding the nomination of candidates.

The Ebonyi Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja had also upheld Nwifuru’s election as governor.

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After the INEC declared Nwifuru of the APC as the winner of the 18th March governorship election in the state, he garnered 199,131 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Ifeanyi Odii of the PDP, who obtained 80,191 votes. Bernard Odoh came third with 52,189 votes.

Odoh and his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, challenged the declaration of Nwifuru as the elected governor of the state, citing alleged certificate forgery and “ineligibility” to stand for the election.

Odoh argued that Nwifuru, at the time of the election, was still a member of the PDP and therefore ineligible to be sponsored for the election by the APC. He also contended that Nwifuru submitted a fake certificate to INEC and urged the tribunal to order a second election between the other two candidates who scored the highest number of votes at the previous election, excluding the governor from taking part.