Enugu Guber Election: Ezea Loses Round One
Francis Okoye
The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Enugu on Friday, struck out the motion brought by Okechukwu Ezea of All Progressives Congress (APC), seeking to amend his petition against the election of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Ruling on the motion brought by Ezea through his counsel, George Ogara, the Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Ahmed Kwajafa, struck out the motion on the grounds that it would introduce new facts in the petition, which were capable of changing the character of the petition.
Tribunal further struck out allegations of crime made by the petitioner against persons who were not joined as parties in the petition.
Okechukwu Ezea had alleged in the petition that the Police, Army, National Youth Service Corps and election observers were bribed and that they took money to circumvent the obvious irregularities that marred the election.
Justice Kwajafa however, said that since the said persons were not joined as parties in the petition, allegations of crime made against them, offend the principles of fair hearing.
On the motion brought by one of the respondent counsels, Justina Offiah (SAN), asking the tribunal to strike out the petition in its entirety on the grounds that the title was improper, Justice Kwajafa ruled that the error in the title is a mere irregularity which is not harmful to the petition.
The tribunal adjourned the matter till July 1 for pre-trial conference.