Who is the person declared winner of the Court of Appeal judgment on the conduct of the Enugu State House of Assembly in Nkanu East during the 2023 general election held on March 18?

Both the Labour candidate, Michael Okwy Nnaji, a surveyor, and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rival, Okey Mbah, are claiming victory.

This is because a whole five days after the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos delivered judgment, none of the parties has been able to obtain a copy, despite assurances by Court of Appeal officials in Enugu, where the case originated, that they would provide the judgment within hours.

“The judgment was delivered by Zoom on Sunday”, explained Chief Lucky Chukwu, an Enugu-based legal practitioner who has been both a commissioner in the state and a state legislator.

“The parties, however, did not get the notice early, and that explains why some of the counsel joined five minutes to the end”.

The confusion has been worsened because judgments for the first 41 cases handled by the Court of Appeal in Lagos have been handed over to the relevant parties except those of 36, 37, and 38 which are on the Nkanu East election.

The Labour candidate won at the Election Petitions Tribunal, but the PDP and its candidate, as well as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) appealed against the decision, hence cases 36, 37, and 38.

There are speculations that the appellate court is taking time to avoid a reenactment of the situation in the Kano State governorship election petition where the judgment read by the justice is at variance with the written judgment that they signed and gave to lawyers of parties to the case.

“The Nkanu East election case is no ordinary House of Assembly election matter”, observed Simon-Peter, the leader of the Enugu State League of Professionals (ESLP).

“It has profound consequences for the Enugu State governorship election which the Labour Party and its gubernatorial candidate, Jonathan Chijioke Edoga, say they won by a wide margin, and they provide strong evidence for it, even though INEC controversially declared PDP’s Peter Mbah the winner”.

The Election Petitions Tribunal led by The Honourable Justice Adie Attoe Onyebueke gave judgment in LP’s favour, affirming there was tremendous overvoting in places like Owo, Governor Peter Mbah’s hometown.

“That’s why Governor Mbah and the PDP have been doing all manner of things to cling to power,” he stated.

The Labour Party alleges that Mbah benefitted from the huge electoral malpractice.

According to Mrs. Ifeoma Ejike, publicity secretary of Oriental Lawyers for Justice, “even the INEC national leadership was surprised when its officers in Enugu State claimed that Mbah received 30,350 votes in Nkanu East Local Government Area which comprises only small rural communities, and so on March 22 officially reduced the votes to 16,956 before declaring the result”.

Professor Joe Aneke of the Enugu State Stakeholders Forum (ESSF) remarked that “it is strange that both the PDP and Mbah have the boldness to claim that they won the governorship vote”.

“The Labour Party won all eight House of Representatives seats except one, won two of the three Senate seats, won 14 of the 24 House of Assembly seats and scored 86.8% of the votes cast in the presidential election, as announced by INEC”.

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