The State and National Assembly Appeal Court sitting in Lagos on Thursday, reinstated Thaddeus Atta of the Labour Party (LP) as the duly elected House of Representatives member representing Eti Osa federal constituency.
A National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal sitting at the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) Lagos, had earlier invalidated the victory of Atta as the rightful representative for the constituency.
However, the three-member panel of the Court of Appeal set aside the previous decision by the lower court in its unanimous decision.
It held that the lower tribunal erred when it relied on the evidence of witnesses who were not party agents where elections were not held or where elections were cancelled but only came to tender form EC 8 which they did not make before the court.
The court further held that for the tribunal to come to the conclusion that the margin of votes where elections were not held or cancelled, can sway the votes cast, the list of registered voters must be presented before it.
The court held that the voter register was never placed before the lower tribunal, adding that the tribunal merely relied on Form EC 8 brought by witnesses.
The court held that the elections were conclusive, and faulted the tribunal’s directive to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a supplementary election within 90 days in specific polling units. On the whole, Appeal Court set aside the judgement of the lower tribunal.
The lower court had in a unanimous judgment, declared the elections inconclusive and ordered INEC to conduct a supplementary election within 90 days in 33 polling units where elections did not hold.
Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Bankole Wellington, who was declared second in the polls, and the All Progressives Congress (APC) Ibrahim Obanikoro had both filed petitions to challenge the elections of February 25, 2023.
INEC had declared Attah winner of the February 25 election, having scored 24,075 votes, while Wellington and Obanikoro were said to have scored 18,668 and 16,901 votes, respectively.
In his petition, wellington had argued that the respondent was, at the time of the election, not qualified to contest the election and that the election was invalid because of corrupt practices and non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
The popular musician and actor had also contended that the LP candidate was not duly elected by a majority of the lawful votes cast at the election.
Wale Igbintade
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